With FC Dallas, Copa America, the World Cup coming to town and a long history of producing top American talent, we might be in danger of turning into a soccer town.
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As Paul Simon might say, they didn’t speak the language and they held no currency. What they did have, for the first time in Kamungo’s short life, was running water, air conditioning, enough food to eat and a bright future.Kamungo is shy by nature. Maybe it has to do with growing up in a refugee camp, or maybe it has to do with being dropped into Abilene when your primary language is Swahili, backed up by a bit of schoolboy French.
Kamungo has several good runs down the left side and is credited with an assist on a beautiful cross into the box that finds the foot of Croatian forward Petar Musa.a couple of weeks ago, coach Luccin has asked the team to play more"vertically" — to attack the field aggressively forward to the goal box. On several occasions, the team is able to get behind Minnesota’s high-pressing back line. This style of play would seem to fit Kamungo’s skill set perfectly.
At this point, he had a wife and kids of his own and 20 years of experience playing the game at a very high level. He just needed a new passion, and he found it in coaching.In 2015, he changed roles within FC Dallas, moving from player to coaching the U12, U13 and U14 age groups. That experience eventually led to an assistant role with then-head coach Luchi Gonzalez, and Luccin kept the job when Nico Estévez was hired.
We show Kamungo a picture of an adult game from the camp in Tanzania and ask him if that was really what it what like. "No," he says,"not for me." But with the plan came a hurdle: the cost of a tryout with a professional club. In addition to the food and the gas and the travel expenses, the price for getting in front of MLS scouts could be as high as $500. That was way too much for a family just four years removed from a refugee camp. So Imani kept looking, probing the system until he found an opening.
With his lineage, Omar Gonzalez theoretically could have played internationally with Mexico, but he got into the U.S. system early and it didn't let him go. But it’s not like they hid him from the Mexican team, as he has over 50 appearances in the U.S. colors. Looking back on his career, with all the achievement, success and occasional heartbreak, he says,"The moment I may remember the most is stepping out with the starting 11 for a 2014 World Cup match against Germany.
Mls Omar Gonzalez Bernard Kamungo
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