Michael Steven Lapper (born August 28, 1970 in Redondo Beach,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) is an American retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

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 ...

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 soccer at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

from 1988 to 1991. While a

Bruin Bruin, (from Dutch for "brown"), is an English folk term for brown bear. Bruin, Bruins or BRUIN may also refer to: Places * Lake Bruin, ox-bow lake of the Mississippi River located in northeastern Louisiana ** Lake Bruin State Park * Bruin, Ke ...

, 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 Los Angeles Heat joined the Western Soccer Alliance in 1986. They joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the WSL merged with the American Soccer League, then folded in 1990. The club played in Torrance, California at West Hi ...

of the

Western Soccer League 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 Alli ...

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 (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on April 7, 1991 against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Lapper played for the U.S.

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games were held in Havana, Cuba from August 2 to August 18, 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organization, PASO community, with events in 33 different sports. The main stadium was ...

gold medal soccer team, the

soccer team and the 1995 Copa America 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 a ...

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

Alexi Lalas Panayotis Alexander "Alexi" Lalas ( el, Αλέξης Λάλας; born June 1, 1970) is an American retired soccer player who played mostly as a defender. Lalas is best known for his participation with the United States men's national soccer te ...

. 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. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

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 () or 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 W ...

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, h ...

, 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. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

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 men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

(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, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

. 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.

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 men's college soccer players American soccer players American expatriate 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 of 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 soccer players in Germany Major League Soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Columbus Crew non-playing staff Association football defenders Expatriate 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 Pan American Games medalists in football