As a soccer addict, Marsch can’t imagine living the “normal” life of a Princeton graduate.
“It feels right doing this for a job,” Marsch said. “I can’t imagine getting up in the morning some days, and it’s a beautiful day, and the grass is in perfect shape, and not being able to go out and play.”
This love affair with soccer began at the of age 5.
“I started playing because my favorite cousin — who was 8 at the time — played soccer, and I wanted to be like him,” Marsch said. “So I joined the local rec. league. I was the type of kid who played a lot of sports, but soccer always came pretty easy to me.”
That ease took him to the top of the game by the time he graduated from high school. When he started to think about colleges, Marsch saw soccer as a stepping stone to a quality education.
“There was no professional league [in 1992],” Marsch said. “The pinnacle of soccer was to be able to use it to get into a good university.”
While at Princeton, Marsch played under Bob Bradley ’80. Bradley — who would later coach Marsch in the MLS and is now the head coach of the U.S. men’s national team — was one of the best things about playing at Princeton.
“Having a guy like Bob around to guide us and challenge us in the right way was one of the most special experiences that Princeton gave me,” Marsch said.
Bradley pushed Marsch to become one of the all-time best Princeton soccer players. As a senior captain, Marsch scored 16 goals, led the team to an appearance in the NCAA tournament and was named an All-American. He was also awarded the William W. Roper Trophy for “high scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship and general proficiency in athletics.”
As an upperclassman, Marsch considered other career options but kept his eye on the formation of the new professional soccer league. After his stellar senior season, he decided to take his chances on an MLS career.
“Once I got drafted, I thought to myself, ‘I’m young, and I’ll always have the opportunity to pursue this other stuff,’ ” Marsch said. “I kind of put the rest of my life on hold to give this a real shot.”
Marsch was drafted by D.C. United, and though he initially had to fight to ensure his spot on the roster, he settled into his role as a reliable full-time player in his third year. The transition from Ivy League soccer to MLS, he said, was not as difficult as one might think.
“You wouldn’t say that the Ivy League — especially back then — was the best league in soccer, but from top to bottom, it’s one of the most competitive,” Marsch said. “There were always good games, even if a team was [at] the bottom playing one of the top teams in the league. That is what prepared me more than anything.”
Marsch played for MLS Cup-winning D.C. United for two seasons before moving to the Chicago Fire, where Bradley was once again his head coach. With the Fire, he won the 1998 MLS Cup, giving him three MLS titles in the nascent league’s three seasons. In 2006, he moved to Chivas USA, where he is a consistent starter in the midfield.
This season, he played in 19 games before a recent elbow to the face forced him to sit out a few weeks with a broken jaw.
Though his job includes extreme physical demands, Marsch maintains that the career of a professional soccer player is not so different from the job of any other Princeton graduate.
“You have to go to work every day and try to figure out how to be valuable … how to get better … how to be more of a company man,” Marsch said. “It is certainly a fun job, and it is unique, but it’s still a job and a very competitive atmosphere. But that’s the part that’s kept me going.”
Though Marsch, 34, is the second-oldest player on Chivas USA’s roster, he shows no signs of slowing down. Only two other members of the team have started more games than he has, and he ranks third on the list of the team’s top scorers this season.
When age finally catches up to him, Marsch said he hopes to cure his soccer addiction in another way.
“I think I’ll move into coaching,” Marsch said. “So hopefully I’ll still be around the game a lot.”
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