15,061 minutes spanning 166 regular-season matches -- than the 26-year-old Garcia has without a goal. He has three career assists.
"It's some kind of a conspiracy theory," he said tongue-in-cheek last week. "I haven't been included in goal-scoring opportunities."
Garcia then got serious.
"For whatever reason, I haven't scored," he said. "I stay at home."
Indeed, as a stay-at-home defender for the Wizards.
"I enjoy guarding the goal," he said. "For me, a great defensive play is as good as scoring a goal."
But Garcia admitted that "I would like to have at least one goal. ... That would be great."
It might get his Wizards teammates off his back.
"I hear it all the time," Garcia said. "I hear it in the locker room."
OK, a little background on Mr. Garcia. While playing for NCAA Division I champion Indiana, he scored several goals there. He also found the back of the net six times in 11 matches for the U.S. under-20 national team in 1998, an impressive strike rate for a forward, let alone a defender.
Then the 5-foot-10, 160-pound All-American defender was picked by the Wizards in the first round of the 2000 MLS SuperDraft and his goal-scoring prowess literally dropped to zero.
"For the first couple of years, I was so eager to score a goal," he said.
But 2000 went into 2001 and into 2002 and 2003 ...
Still no goals.
If he's worried about it, Garcia hasn't let it be known.
"I can't pressure something that I can't necessarily control," he said.
But he can dream, can't he? Garcia's dream is to score at least one MLS goal.
"I prefer it as a big, important goal," he said. "A great goal."
He even fantasizes about his goal celebration.
"I want to come up with a hip-hop celebration," he said, many a time thinking of it before he takes a nap.
Realizing that a Nick Garcia goal would be such a rare occasion, he would donate the ball with which he would score to charity.
Earlier this season, Garcia said he came close, although he doesn't recall against which team. He unleashed a shot from 25-30 yards that went "probably five yards up over the goal. I've probably hit the post once or twice.
"I've been getting into some good opportunities, but I haven't converted any."
His last goal came during the NCAA College Cup, when he found the back of the next two or three times during Indiana's championship run in 1998.
He said he scored off a rebound against Santa Clara, and celebrated with teammate and forward Matt Fundenberger.
"He got down on one knee and I put my foot on his knee and he was shining my shoes," Garcia said.
So, Garcia is more concerned about making some big defensive plays, which even occasionally make televised highlights if they are spectacular enough.
His most memorable goal-saving play came in college.
It was in the 70th minute of the Hoosiers' 1-0 victory against Santa Clara in the 1999 College Cup final in Charlotte, N.C. Garcia, named the outstanding defensive player of that tournament, admitted he had a premonition that it was going to happen.
Anthony Chimienti fired a side volley from a sharp angle from seven yards on the right side that goalkeeper T.J. Hannig barely got a hand on. An alert Garcia was on the goal line and headed it out of harm's way.
"The play was on (his) left side and somebody got beat," he said. "He hits it ... and it got deflected. I came in behind. I deflected it with my head. I somehow lived it before. It was something I had to do."
He likes going one-on-one with opposing attackers such as the Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan.
"It's the 1-v-1 deal," he said. "You reporters repeatedly (write about) marquee matchups.
"It's like watching Larry Bird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You have two great players play. Somebody's going to win and I like being on the winning end of that."
That's why Garcia enjoys marking players such as FC Dallas striker Carlos Ruiz. When the Wizards called the Western Conference home and Ruiz plied his trade with the Galaxy, Garcia and the Guatemalan international tussled in some rough-and-tumble confrontations, including blanking him in K.C.'s 2-0 victory in the Western Conference Championship.
"We always played L.A.," Garcia said. "There's always some flamboyance, something going on between us. It's what I relish, shutting him down and helping my team get to the final.
"That's the kind of matchup I had, rather than someone who does it nonchalantly. It brings out the best in me."
Garcia and his teammates will have to be at their best. With only two precious matches remaining in the regular season, the fourth-place Wizards are but three points ahead of the fifth-place MetroStars for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth.
For now, Garcia's goal quest might have to take a backseat to his defensive responsibilities during the playoff hunt. But wouldn't it be deliciously ironic that if he connects for a key goal in a K.C. victory in the next two weeks?
For now, Garcia can only dream.
Michael Lewis writes about soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has covered MLS since its inception. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Lewis will only answer e-mails and letters that have names or are signed. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
