By Mike Hanzel

ESPN.com – February 15, 2006

In 2002, DaMarcus Beasley and Pablo Mastroeni made the U.S. World Cup team despite playing in one qualifier and just a handful of games with the national team prior to reaching South Korea. Rather than sit on the bench, Beasley and Mastroeni proved a double revelation for Bruce Arena, each earning significant minutes and making an integral contribution toward the Americans' quarterfinal finish.

With the 2006 World Cup a mere half-year away, many U.S. fans are wondering who, if anyone, can duplicate their feats and become a surprise star for the U.S. in Germany this June. Those fans might want to take a harder look at emerging left back Heath Pearce. The only European-based player called into Arena's January/February camp, Pearce, 21, has impressed the American coaching staff with his blazing speed and athleticism, his ability to go forward, his intelligence and his quick transition; he went from the college game to being a regular with Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjælland (pronounced NORSH e LAND).

"He's a good athlete," U.S. assistant coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick said. "You can never have enough left-footed players in your team. He's a very good striker of the ball, he hits a good cross, he can hit a good long pass. He picks out the forwards very well with early balls forward. And he's got good pace, and his defending is improving every day."

It helps also that, since Jeff Agoos gave up his left back spot midway through the last World Cup, no one has imposed himself on the position. Arena has tried a myriad of players there, including Frankie Hejduk, Greg Vanney, Carlos Bocanegra, Bobby Convey and, recently, Eddie Lewis and Jonathan Spector.

And while many of those players have more experience than Pearce, few naturally play there. Bocanegra, for example, prefers to play in the middle. Lewis and Convey have played in the midfield for most of their careers. Spector and Hejduk seem more comfortable on the right.

For his part, Pearce actually spent his youth playing in more attacking roles. But he feels he is improving defensively every day, especially since moving to Denmark, a country that emphasizes the physical aspect of soccer.

"It's helped me personally quite a bit," Pearce said of his two-season spell overseas. "I think it has different effects on different people, but for me it's helped me because I'm new -- I mean, I've only been a left back since I went to [the University of] Portland, so I'm still learning every day. And learning the physical side of the game and to be strong and use my strength has actually been really beneficial to me going to Denmark, because that's what they really try to bring out of you every day."

Myernick said the U.S. coaching staff has known about Pearce since his days playing for the U.S. U-17 and U-20 squads. A broken leg ended Pearce's U-17 experience prematurely, and rather than go straight to Major League Soccer as teammates Eddie Johnson and Santino Quaranta did, Pearce chose the University of Portland. The California native played there for three years, but despite a stellar college career he did not exactly have MLS clubs knocking down his door when he left college after the 2004 season.

"When I first started speaking to MLS, they said I was a shoo-in, you know, one of the top three or four draft picks for sure, and then it just kind of fell off of that, and then kind of dropped out," Pearce said.

Disappointed, Pearce looked at Europe, which always had been his goal anyway, he said. Ironically, the snub from MLS may have put him firmly on Arena's radar screen. He quickly became the regular left back for FC Nordsjælland, where he has earned a reputation as a skilled attacker coming out of the back and helped turn the club from a relegation struggler in 2004-05 to a sixth-place team so far this season.