Steve Ralston (then with Tampa Bay, now with New England) did.
But Pope's contributions to the game went well past winning awards (although there is certainly nothing wrong about that).
"He's really been one of the best players we've ever produced in our country," said Red Bulls assistant coach Richie Williams, a teammate of Pope with United and the MetroStars.
"He understood the game very well. He was pretty physical. He could run. He knew what he could do with the ball. He wasn't flashy with the ball, but just knew where the next pass needed to go. He wasn't a huge talker, but he could read the game and organize in that way."
The 6-foot-1, 180-lb. Pope was a member of the U.S. national team from 1996 to 2006, making 82 international appearances and performing in three FIFA World Cups (1998, 2002 and 2006).
He also was voted to 11 MLS All-Star Games, the league's Defender of the Year in 1997 and to the MLS All-Time Best XI when the league celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2005.
Heading into the home finale against Houston, Pope had played in 252 matches spanning 21,666 minutes for three MLS sides, scoring 10 goals and 10 assists, while accruing only 22 yellow cards and two red cards.
"He's always been ... a great one-on-one defender," said another Red Bulls assistant coach John Harkes, a teammate of Pope from 1996-98. "One thing as a defender, you always wanted a guy that going to be level headed in the right parts of the field to put himself in spots to make plays and Eddie has always done that.
"He matured with the game in a quick period of time. It didn't take him long to catch up to the speed of the game and being able to read it from a deep position as a center back."
Kansas City Wizards technical director Peter Vermes added that Pope spoke more through his play than through words.
"If there's one thing you could say about Eddie, he was always a quiet guy. He did all of his talking though his play," he said. "He was a consummate professional from the perspective that he always gave you everything he had when he stepped onto the field. He just got better year after year from understanding the game and reading it. I think he really enjoyed playing the game."
While certainly never known as a goal-scorer, Pope's most famous goal will standout in MLS history forever because he put an exclamation point on the very first season and MLS Cup, a championship game that has been used as a standard for any other since.
The encounter was played in a nor'easter in conditions better suited for ducks and just about anything with gills there were so many puddles at Foxboro Stadium that stormy Sunday. Still, some 34,000 fans showed up (42,000 bought tickets) and witnessed a game for the ages.
"I knew that every championship game wasn't going to end that way," Pope once said. "That was pretty dramatic. San Jose's comeback win a few years ago (2001) might be the closest. It's hard to duplicate.
"How good that was for the league? It was on TV on ABC.
"What a good game for the league to have for the first championship. Can other games live up to it? We were certainly blessed."
When RSL plays highlights of Pope's career before Monday night's match, that goal has to be featured.
United rallied from a 2-0 deficit late in the second half to record a 3-2 extra-time victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Pope's rendezvous with history came four minutes into extra time. Marco Etcheverry sent a corner kick into the penalty area. Pope eluded Curt Onalfo (now coach of the Kansas City Wizards) and headed the ball past Mexican international goalkeeper Jorge Campos.
"I scored a couple of those like that during the year," Pope said. "It probably helped me not being a well-known player or a dangerous player.
"We worked on that at practice during the week. Marco pretty much put the ball where he wanted it. He sent me a great ball and I finished it."
At the time, Pope couldn't fathom what had just transpired.
"More than anything, probably disbelief," he said.
In celebration Pope and several teammates performed a long belly slide in a puddle that was quickly becoming a lake. It didn't matter. They were already wet.
The goal and championship capped a memorable rookie season that turned out to be the start of something big.
"For me, wanting to be a professional soccer player and wanting to be a champion, it took a while for that to settle in," Pope said.
"To have an accomplishment like that was unbelievable.
"It was unreal.
"It was surreal."
You can't say that about Eddie Pope's career. It was certainly the real and most recently, the Real thing.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
