Eric Eichmann (born May 7, 1965) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player. He played professionally in Germany and the United States and later served as an assistant coach with the

Miami Fusion Miami Fusion F.C. was an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team played from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. He also earned 29 caps and scored four goals, for the United States national soccer team.

College

Born in

Margate, Florida Margate is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city of Margate is part of the Miami metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,712. History Margate was founded in the ...

, Eichmann grew up in Florida where St. Thomas Aquinas High School and played for the Key Biscayne Gunners youth club. Eichmann played college soccer

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC). His freshman year, he earned All-ACC honors. In 1984, the team won the NCAA national championship. His most successful individual year came as a junior when he set a school record of nineteen assists while helping his team to the ACC championship. As a senior, Eichmann earned First-Team All-American honors. In 1986, he also played for Atlanta Datagraphic, a top level amateur club.

Professional career

After graduation, Eichmann played a single season with German Third Division team Werder Bremen II. The next year he returned to the United States where he played with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the ASL/APSL from 1988 to 1993. His time with the team saw them win the 1989 APSL Championship. In 1992, he began a career as an itinerant

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer is a form of five-a-side football, five-a-side or six-a-side version of minifootball. It is derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arenas. It differs from the FIFA, FIFA ...

player. He began with the Wichita Wings of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) for one season, before moving on to the Washington Warthogs of the

Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. History In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice ...

(CISL) in 1993–1994 and finally the St. Louis Ambush of the NPSL from 1994 to 1996. In 1995, the Ambush won the league championship. In 1996, the Kansas City Wiz of the

(MLS) took Eichmann as the thirty-sixth pick (fourth round) of the league's inaugural draft. He would play one season and retire as a full-time soccer player.

International career

World Cup and Olympics

Eichmann earned his first cap on February 5, 1986, against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He went on to play a total of 28 games with the senior team, scoring four goals. He was a member of the U.S. Olympic soccer team at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

as well as the U.S. team at the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

. His last game with the national team came against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

on March 25, 1993.

Futsal

Eichmann also earned seventeen caps with the U.S. futsal team between 1986 and 1992. During that period, he played on the U.S. team which took third at the 1989

FIFA Futsal World Championship The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherla ...

and second at the 1992 championship. He ended his futsal career with seven goals.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Eichmann served as an assistant coach of the

of the MLS from 2000 to 2002. He is the Director of Coaching and Player Development for the South Florida Football Academy (ex Boca United), a youth academy team in Florida part of MLS Next

References

External links

Clemson Tigers bio

USSoccerPlayers.com bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eichmann, Eric 1965 births Living people 1990 FIFA World Cup players All-American college men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players in Germany American men's futsal players American Professional Soccer League players American soccer coaches American Soccer League (1988–89) players American men's soccer players Atlanta Datagraphic players Clemson Tigers men's soccer players Continental Indoor Soccer League players Men's association football forwards Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994) players Sporting Kansas City players Major League Soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players Olympic soccer players for the United States People from Margate, Florida Soccer players from Florida St. Louis Ambush (1992–2000) players SV Werder Bremen II players United States men's international soccer players Washington Warthogs players Wichita Wings (NPSL) players St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Florida) alumni 20th-century American sportsmen