By Jim Stout
D3sports.com
Former St. Lawrence University men's basketball center Greg Sutton made his professional soccer debut this past week, helping the Chicago Fire win two games and end a three-game Major League Soccer losing streak.
Sutton, who guided St. Lawrence to the NCAA Elite Eight in basketball in 1998, gained his first playing time in goal for Chicago during a 3-2 exhibition win against Legia-Daewoo of Warsaw last Wednesday at Soldier Field.
He then made his MLS debut Saturday night at home, coming on as an emergency substitute for starter Zach Thornton and helping the defending champion Fire blank the San Jose Clash, 2-0, before a crowd of 13,141.
Sutton, who as a 6-6 basketball center led St. Lawrence to three NCAA appearances in three years, entered the San Jose game in the 24th minute, after Thornton was sent off for handling the ball outside the penalty area. He proceeded to make five saves over the final 66 minutes to earn the victory.
Though Chicago had to play with just 10 men following Thornton's ejection, the Fire received goals in the 34th minute from defender Lubos Kublik and in the 73rd minute from Jerzy Podbrozy.
Chicago (7-6) had not won a MLS game since May 22 against Kansas City, losing consecutive matches to Los Angeles, New England and Washington.
"Fortunately we had a good game (Saturday), and it was a big win for us," said Sutton. "There really was no time for me to get nervous. Maybe the first couple of minutes you get some jitters, but after that they were pretty much gone, and you try and concentrate the rest of the game.
"Playing on Wednesday against Legia was good experience," he added. "We were playing a good team and against a decent crowd (10,255). It isn't often that I get to play in a live game like that. It was a very important chance that I had."
Sutton left St. Lawrence following his senior soccer season last December to join the Canadian U-23 Olympic team. Since then, however, the Hamilton, Ontario, native has left taken himself out of consideration for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, allowing Chicago to keep him on the roster as a Canadian citizen who has never appeared for his national team.
Major League Soccer teams are only allowed to carry four foreign players who have appeared previously in international competition. They generally do not use one of those four foreign slots for a backup goalkeeper. Sutton went to high school in Bethel, Conn.
Not only was he playing professionally for the first time last week, Sutton was coming off an eye injury that had prevented him from training with Chicago for three weeks in May and June.
He will now be afforded his first career start on Saturday in Denver against the Colorado Rapids as Thornton has to serve a one-game suspension for the red card.
"If you can make some (early) saves, your concentration gets to be where it needs to be to win," said Sutton. "I won't do too much differently in practice since I will be starting next week. I will have a similar training schedule. I have more time to prepare and know that I will be starting and be prepared. I will be able to focus a lot better and hopefully we will have the same result as (Saturday)."
In making his Fire debut last Wednesday in the friendly against Legia, Sutton replaced Thornton at halftime of a 2-2 game. He shut the Polish First Division side out for the final 45 minutes; Chicago got a second-half goal from Podbrozy, the ex-Legia star, to register a 3-2 win.
"Greg Sutton has a good deal of talent," said Chicago coach Bob Bradley. "He's a young goalkeeper who needs to get into games. It was a good opportunity when he got into the Legia game, and he made some key saves for us."
Sutton led the St. Lawrence men's soccer team to four postseason tournament appearances in four years, including a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals last November. The Saints lost their chance to reach the Final Four in a shootout loss to Williams.
Though he left school several weeks later, Sutton returned to St. Lawrence in May to graduate as he recuperated from the eye injury.
