Kansas City has already had its signature World Cup moment
Matt Besler sat in a locker room in Manaus, Brazil, his eyes fixating on a whiteboard where U.S. national team coaches were outlining defensive corner kick assignments.
They listed American players on one side, filling in the corresponding Portugal players on the other, until they reached Besler’s name.
“They’re gonna write Ronaldo,” he thought, “I know it.”
Besler, then a 27-year-old from Overland Park whose big career aspirations were high school basketball tournaments and Kansas City indoor soccer teams, doesn’t hang much memorabilia in his home to represent what he turned into his actual career.
But there is one photo he has framed. It comes from that day in Manaus, and it’s related to the assignment he had that day.
In his white U.S. jersey, Besler is standing over Cristiano Ronaldo, the player who months earlier had won the honor as the best in the world, but the one who, in his instance, sat on his butt and complained for a foul.
“It probably didn’t happen that cool,” Besler said. “It’s just like the perfect timing.”
He keeps that photo in his house.
And on his iPhone.
“That is the one I pull up if I ever need to prove that I played soccer,” Besler quipped. “If a kid doesn’t believe me, I type in ‘Besler, Ronaldo’ on Google, and it pops up.”
The next 25 days will put Kansas City on a World Cup stage. It will host six matches in the global tournament.
But a dozen years ago, Besler provided Kansas City with its best World Cup moment.
Heck, it was Kansas City’s only World Cup moment.
Besler is the first Kansas City kid to reach that stage, and after 90 minutes matched up against a top goalscorer in the world in his prime, he shined on it. As Vahe Gregorian pointed out earlier this year, his growth within soccer is reflective of the city he represents.
He didn’t imagine playing in a World Cup. Few in Kansas City imagined hosting one.
The significance of it was on his mind throughout his stay in Brazil, in ways big and small. But on June 22, 2014, there was but one thing on his mind: Ronaldo.
After the whiteboard revelation, Besler developed a strategy against Ronaldo on those corner kicks and set pieces: Go after the player as much as the ball. The match is a bit of a blur now, but Besler can still visualize the initial corner.
“Ronaldo had an open lane to run. I’m like, ‘This is going to be a goal,’” Besler said. “He can jump higher than I can. He is taller than I am. He is better at heading the ball than I am.
“So my strategy that whole game on set pieces was to basically jump into him and get him off-balance enough where he couldn’t generate enough power.”
The Americans were clear underdogs heading into the match, but they tied Portugal, 2-2. The draw helped the United States advance out of the toughest group in the tournament. Portugal didn’t make it.
Ronaldo, the odds-on favorite to lead that World Cup in goals, did not score.
“I was proud,” Besler said. “I was wearing it all on my sleeve, representing Kansas City and Sporting, and it’s like, we just played with them, you know? I can play with these guys. I don’t want to admit I ever doubted that, but it’s a cool feeling to walk off that field.”
The city coveted its long-awaited representation in the World Cup, and it felt as though half of it crammed into the Power & Light District to watch. While Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Michael Bradley jerseys probably littered American watch parties, a different name sprinkled through P&L: Besler.
For a dozen years, he was the closest this city felt to the World Cup — from, oh, about 3,500 miles away.
It’s in our backyard today.
The kid from our backyard made this city part of it first.