Joseph Lapira

**greendeiseboy** · 21/12/2006, 11:06 AM

just read this on elevenaside.com. Anyone know anything about this lad .......

must be worth a look.

Irish-American youngster lands college awards

December 20, 2006

Notre Dame soccer star Joseph Lapira, who qualifies for Ireland through his mother Kate, has capped an exceptional campaign for the Fighting Irish by landing several awards, including the prestigious MAC Hermann Trophy given to the player recognised by coaches as the best in American junior college soccer.

Lapira, a hugely promising striker who turned 20 in August, scored 22 goals for Notre Dame during the season, including four in a breath-taking 5-4 victory over Indiana as well as the only goal in a 1-0 win over Maryland in November which saw the Fighting Irish through to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship quarter-finals for the first time.

A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lapira was an unheralded prospect at the start of the year, coming from nowhere to land America’s top award for college soccer players in a ceremony screened across the US earlier this week.

Lapira – who cuts a distinctive figure, with hairband keeping his flowing blond locks in tow – was also named as Soccer America Men’s Player of the Year, as well as being included in the All-American first-team by the respected publication College Soccer News.

Speaking at the Hermann Trophy ceremony, he said: “When they announced the final three, it was a bit overwhelming. Coming from last year, I would have never thought I’d be a in a position to win the Hermann, nonetheless be right up there and winning it.

"Someone was telling me earlier that I wasn’t even on the preseason All-Big East team, which doesn’t surprise me. I didn’t deserve to be. Before the season, I had absolutely no inkling I’d be getting the Hermann Trophy.”

Previous winners of the Hermann Trophy include Manchester City midfielder Claudio Reyna, who came out on top in 1992 and ’93, USA World Cup star Alexi Lalas and ex-Sheffield Wednesday man John Harkes, while virtually every recipient in recent years has gone on to a successful career in Major League Soccer.

**Dodge** · 21/12/2006, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by greendeiseboy

just read this on elevenaside.com. Anyone know anything about this lad .......

must be worth a look.

More so than any of the lads on soccer scholarship in UCD?

**greendeiseboy** · 21/12/2006, 11:16 AM

if they're good enough .. why not... same as anyone that fits that category

**ken foree** · 21/12/2006, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

More so than any of the lads on soccer scholarship in UCD?

yes. unless he's shaved off this fantastic beard:

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/...ion/16659.jpeg

**greendeiseboy** · 21/12/2006, 1:09 PM

like the jersey tho

**cavan_fan** · 21/12/2006, 2:17 PM

Another bloody forward! can we have soem defenders please.

**Metrostars** · 21/12/2006, 2:34 PM

Originally Posted by greendeiseboy

like the jersey tho

Better pic:
http://soccernet-att.espn.go.com/des...apira2_205.jpg

Another article:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns...t=ncaa&cc=5901

His unbelievable junior season this year almost never happened, as he tore the meniscus in his left knee in the season opener against UAB. Lapira and the coaching staff decided he would try to play on the knee and postpone surgery until after the season.

He has 1 more year left at College level and will probably join an MLS team in 2008. I don't think he has been capped by the US yet but winning the Hermann has certainly brought attention to him. With qualifying for the Olympics (U-23) starting later in 2007, I quessing he might be getting a look unless someone from over there has a chat with him first.

**Paddy Garcia** · 21/12/2006, 8:46 PM

Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

Will he play for us then? Anyone in the USA know how strong the tie is likely to be?

I'm not sure we should be playin these yank lads.

**greendeiseboy** · 22/12/2006, 7:55 AM

Originally Posted by Paddy Garcia

I'm not sure we should be playin these yank lads.

why not? how do you know he regards himself as a "yank" - his mother is irish, he's playing with a team that is proud of it's irish connections - he obviously has strong ties here - for all we know he might even be an irish passport holder - if he's good enough and commited enough get him over and have a look - we're so sh*te at the moment if someone wants to play for us for the right reasons give them a chance

**Dodge** · 22/12/2006, 9:04 AM

Originally Posted by greendeiseboy

why not? how do you know he regards himself as a "yank" - his mother is irish, he's playing with a team that is proud of it's irish connections

NOtre Dame doesn't have that strong Irish connections. Chances are this lad joined them because they offered him the best scholarship...

**greendeiseboy** · 22/12/2006, 9:28 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

NOtre Dame doesn't have that strong Irish connections. Chances are this lad joined them because they offered him the best scholarship...

suppose you're right - they dont really have that much connection to ireland

The Fighting Irish

Exactly where and how Notre Dame's athletic nickname, "Fighting Irish," came to origination never has been perfectly explained.

One story suggests the moniker was born in 1899 with Notre Dame leading Northwestern 5-0 at halftime of a game in Evanston, Ill. The Wildcat fans supposedly began to chant, "Kill the Fighting Irish, kill the Fighting Irish," as the second half opened.

Another tale has the nickname originating at halftime of the Notre Dame-Michigan game in 1909. With his team trailing, one Notre Dame player yelled to his teammates - who happened to have names like Dolan, Kelly, Glynn, Duffy and Ryan - "What's the matter with you guys? You're all Irish and you're not fighting worth a lick."

Notre Dame came back to win the game and press, after overhearing the remark, reported the game as a victory for the "Fighting Irish."

The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame athletic teams, their never-say-die fighting spirit and the Irish qualities of grit, determination and tenacity. The term likely began as an abusive expression tauntingly directed toward the athletes from the small, private, Catholic institution. Notre Dame alumnus Francis Wallace popularized it in his New York Daily News columns in the 1920s.

The Notre Dame Scholastic, in a 1929 edition, printed its own version of the story:

"The term 'Fighting Irish' has been applied to Notre Dame teams for years. It first attached itself years ago when the school, comparatively unknown, sent its athletic teams away to play in another city ...At that time the title 'Fighting Irish' held no glory or prestige ...

"The years passed swiftly and the school began to take a place in the sports world ...'Fighting Irish' took on a new meaning. The unknown of a few years past has boldly taken a place among the leaders. The unkind appellation became symbolic of the struggle for supremacy of the field. ...The team, while given in irony, has become our heritage. ...So truly does it represent us that we unwilling to part with it ..."

Notre Dame competed under the nickname "Catholics" during the 1800s and became more widely known as the "Ramblers" during the early 1920s in the days of the Four Horsemen.

University president Rev. Matthew Walsh, C.S.C., officially adopted "Fighting Irish" as the Notre Dame nickname in 1927.

**Dodge** · 22/12/2006, 9:55 AM

All in the past, and it is only a nickname. Read the full history of the university and its Athletic department and come back to me.

**Superhoops** · 22/12/2006, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by greendeiseboy

suppose you're right - they dont really have that much connection to ireland

.

Wot, like Celt*c, you mean!!

**greendeiseboy** · 22/12/2006, 10:16 AM

i did - founded by french priest etc - responsible for providing further education to irish immigrants when most others turned them away - - wouldnt say its all in the past - irish/americans tend to retain their affinity with us -

look regardless of where he goes to school etc if he wants to play for us and he's good enough he should be given a chance - f*ck me theres enough turning us down at the moment - guarantee if he did declare he'd show a lot more commitment than some of the wasters we have at the moment

**Dodge** · 22/12/2006, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by greendeiseboy

guarantee if he did declare he'd show a lot more commitment than some of the wasters we have at the moment

You can guarentee it eh?

**dr_peepee** · 22/12/2006, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by cavan_fan

Another bloody forward! can we have soem defenders please.

Yeah! This is what it must have been like to be Welsh in the 90's

**SaucyJack** · 22/12/2006, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by Metrostars

Better pic:
http://soccernet-att.espn.go.com/des...apira2_205.jpg

Another article:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns...t=ncaa&cc=5901

He has 1 more year left at College level and will probably join an MLS team in 2008. I don't think he has been capped by the US yet but winning the Hermann has certainly brought attention to him. With qualifying for the Olympics (U-23) starting later in 2007, I quessing he might be getting a look unless someone from over there has a chat with him first.

I'm guessing that someone in Lapira's camp/Family put the Ireland connection out there to prod the U.S. Under-21/23 selectors to pick him before he gets locked up by us, kinda like we tried with Dixon, just my guess.

**Metrostars** · 22/12/2006, 6:08 PM

Originally Posted by SaucyJack

I'm guessing that someone in Lapira's camp/Family put the Ireland connection out there to prod the U.S. Under-21/23 selectors to pick him before he gets locked up by us, kinda like we tried with Dixon, just my guess.

Maybe so, but if Ireland wants to cap him, it better happen really soon because I predict he will be called up by US U-23 before the end of 2007.

**Qwerty** · 23/12/2006, 2:50 PM

The only way that he will play for Ireland is if he is turned down by the U.S. His mother could be Vulcan nerver mind Irish and it wouldn't want to make him play for the U.S any less - unless he has some strange mother-fixation

**Metrostars** · 24/12/2006, 9:18 PM

Speaking of Irish Americans, Michael Parkhurst of the New England Revs who's father is from Monaghan got his first call up for the US team training camp in January.