Ever wonder just what’s going through Chris Wondolowski’s mind when he scores a goal? Or how he's able to pop up out of nowhere to fool the defense, something he’s become so well-known for in a standout 12-year career?
With a recent scoring spree helping to trigger the San Jose Earthquakes ongoing four-game winning streak, Wondolowski provided insight – with his own words – in a recently penned article for the The Players Tribune, an outlet founded by former Major League Baseball star Derek Jeter to provide professional athletes their own platform.
As part of the series “What You Don’t Know About,” Wondolowski opens:
“I’m a striker. My job is to score goals.”
Discussing his lauded movement off the ball, Wondolowski breaks down the “game of chess” between him and the defenders, describing how it starts in his head during the hours leading up to the match before progressing onto the pitch.
“A major part of my job is to lie (sorry, Mom). I have to use deception to manipulate two, sometimes three, defenders guarding me,” he writes.
- Get more Quakes news at SJEarthquakes.com
Wondolowski also cites the very thing fans often hear leads to success: confidence. His pregame visualization exercises help build a deep well ahead of each game.
“This job is so cool because it’s about imagination, then destruction,” he concludes. “I’ve scored more than 100 goals in Major League Soccer. Each was imagined before the game, then immediately forgotten once the ball hits the net. Same with every miss. I destroy them from my memory. The only thing that exists is the moment I’m in.
“And that’s what a striker does.”
