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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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

Miami Fusion The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best seas ...

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 ...

. He also earned 29

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 ...

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. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,712. Margate is part of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6,166,488 people in 2020. Margate was founded in the 195 ...

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

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(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 Atlanta Datagraphic was an amateur U.S. soccer club sponsored by the Datagraphic firm of Atlanta, Georgia. It won the 1979 National Amateur Cup. History In 1979, George D. Baker, president of Datagraphic, a printing firm located in Atlanta, Georg ...

, a top level amateur club.

Professional career

After graduation, Eichmann played a single season with German Third Division team

Werder Bremen II SV Werder Bremen II is the reserve team of SV Werder Bremen. It plays in Regionalliga, the fourth level of the German football league system, and has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal on nineteen occasions. It also has won the Germ ...

. The next year he returned to the United States where he played with the

Fort Lauderdale Strikers Fort Lauderdale Strikers may refer to: *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983), member of North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983 *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994), member of American Soccer League from 1988 to 1989 and American Profes ...

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 (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor socc ...

player. He began with the

Wichita Wings The Wichita Wings were a professional indoor soccer franchise based in Wichita, Kansas. The Wings were admitted to the Major Indoor Soccer League as an expansion team on August 21, 1979.

of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) for one season, before moving on to the

Washington Warthogs The Washington Warthogs were a professional indoor soccer team in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) from 1994 to 1997. They played their home games in the USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland, an arena they shared with the Washington Bulle ...

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 Pre ...

(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 Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the we ...

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 ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. 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 known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

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 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 time (the first being Me ...

. His last game with the national team came against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

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 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 NextClub bio
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References

External links

USSoccerPlayers.com bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eichmann, Eric 1965 births Living people 1990 FIFA World Cup players All-American men's college soccer players American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Germany American men's futsal players American Professional Soccer League players American soccer coaches American Soccer League (1988–89) players American soccer players Atlanta Datagraphic players Clemson Tigers men's soccer players Continental Indoor Soccer League players Expatriate footballers in Germany 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 of 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