Michael Steven Lapper (born August 28, 1970, in

Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) is an American retired

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 ...

defender. During his fifteen-year playing career, most of it spent as a sweeper, he played in England, Germany and the United States. He earned 44

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, scoring one goal, with the U.S. national soccer team between 1991 and 1995. He was part of the U.S. teams at both the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

and the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

Player

Youth

Lapper played youth soccer in the North Huntington Beach Untouchables youth club. He graduated from Marina High in Huntington Beach. Lapper played

collegiate Collegiate may refer to: * College * Webster's Dictionary, a dictionary with editions referred to as a "Collegiate" * ''Collegiate'' (1926 film), 1926 American silent film directed by Del Andrews * ''Collegiate'' (1936 film), 1936 American musi ...

soccer at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

from 1988 to 1991. While a Bruin, Lapper won the 1990

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

, earning first team All American honors. While in college, Lapper also played with the local

Los Angeles Heat The Los Angeles Heat was an American professional Association football, soccer team. The Heat joined the Western Soccer League, Western Soccer Alliance in 1986, then the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the WSL merged with the Ame ...

of the

Western Soccer League The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer ...

in 1988 and 1989. He was a WSL First Team All-Star in 1989.

International

Lapper made his debut for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on April 7, 1991, against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Lapper played for the U.S.

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games, officially known as the XI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Havana 1991 (), were held in Havana, Cuba from 2 to 18 August 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organi ...

gold medal soccer team, the

soccer team and the

1995 Copa America 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

team which placed fourth at that tournament. In 1993, he played every U.S. game as a sweeper. When

Bora Milutinović Velibor "Bora" Milutinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager. He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record al ...

moved to a flat-back four defensive scheme, Lapper found himself relegated to the bench in favor of

Alexi Lalas Panayotis Alexander Lalas (; born June 1, 1970) is an American former soccer player who played mostly as a defender. Lalas is best known for his participation with the United States men's national soccer team in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where ...

. However, he did make the U.S. team which played as host in the

. This team advanced to the second round where it lost to Brazil, but Lapper failed to enter any of the U.S. games. He played several more matches at the end of 1994 and into 1995, but on August 16, 1995, he earned his last

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

in a losing match to Sweden. He ended his national team career with 44 and scored one goal.

Europe

Lapper began his professional career in 1994 with German

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

in Germany (1994–95). On a side note, he scored in his debut game with that team. He continued to start for Wolfsburg until coach

Eckhard Krautzun Eckhard Krautzun (born 13 January 1941) is a German football coach and former player. Managerial career As a player, Krautzun turned out for Union Solingen, Rheydter SV, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Young Fellows Zürich and TeBe Berlin. In 1968, ...

, who had sought Lapper's services, was fired by team management. Lapper soon found himself in the position of so many American players in Europe during those years. The new manager, Gerd Roggensack, had no interest in American soccer players and Lapper found himself unable to even make the substitute list. At the time that Krautzun was fired, Wolfsburg stood at the top of the German Second Division. By the end of the season, it had slipped to fourth and failed to win promotion to the First Division. Lapper requested a transfer and in 1995, the team sent him to British

club

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

for £100,000. At the time, Southend was pushing for promotion to the Premiership, but when it actually faced demotion to the second division in 1997, Lapper left Southend to sign with

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 ...

(MLS). However, he did have a final stint within English soccer, when Halifax Town signed him on a rolling contract in late 1999. His time at the club proved unsuccessful and he soon returned to the U.S.

Major League Soccer

When Lapper signed with MLS, the league allocated him in June 1997 to the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

. While with that team, he played 110 games, starting 99, until his retirement in 2002. Additionally, he scored five goals and assisted on 10 more.

Post-playing career

After retiring from playing, he joined the Columbus Crew's front office as the Director of Soccer Business Development, which focuses on the growth of the Crew's camps, clinics and soccer academies. During the 2005, season he officially joined the coaching staff. Following the 2013 MLS season, Lapper parted ways with the Crew and became a member of the West Virginia University men's soccer staff. In 2019, he was the New England Revolution's interim manager after Brad Friedel was fired.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapper, Mike 1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Redondo Beach, California Western Soccer Alliance players Los Angeles Heat players All-American college men's soccer players American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players Columbus Crew players Southend United F.C. players VfL Wolfsburg players 2. Bundesliga players UCLA Bruins men's soccer players Olympic soccer players for the United States Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1992 King Fahd Cup players 1993 Copa América players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players United States men's international soccer players Soccer players from California American expatriate sportspeople in England American expatriate men's soccer players in Germany Major League Soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Columbus Crew non-playing staff Men's association football defenders Expatriate men's footballers in England West Virginia Mountaineers men's soccer coaches Footballers at the 1991 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in football English Football League players 20th-century American sportsmen