World Cup South Africa 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dempsey celebrates goals with happiness, sadness

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World Cup South Africa 2010
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PRETORIA, South Africa. Goal celebrations at World Cups have involved somersaults, line dancing and the rocking of an imaginary baby. No matter how many times Clint Dempsey scores in this tournament, he probably won’t be joining that esteemed and colorful list of the most enterprising on-field revelers.

However, no celebration at the World Cup carries as much significance to its performer as to Dempsey, who religiously signals to the heavens and utters a few words under his breath every time he scores a goal.

Television viewers might have been puzzled by the little ceremony he performed after his tame long-range effort slipped past Robert Green during Saturday's 1-1 draw with England in Rustenburg. The reason is to pay tribute to his late sister Jennifer, who died of a brain aneurism at the age of 16 in 1995, a tragedy Dempsey carries with him to this day.

"She is always in my thoughts and it is something that never leaves you," Dempsey said. "Every time I score I like to give her a little message, to remember her, to represent her and how she was.”

Jennifer Dempsey was a precociously talented rising tennis star apparently destined for greatness. The Dempsey family invested heavily in her future, spending thousands of dollars to enable her to travel from their humble home in Nacogdoches, Texas, to professional tournaments.

That cost meant Dempsey, four years younger than his sister, had to briefly scale down his soccer aspirations, as the family could no longer afford the gas for the six-hour return trip to Dallas to play for a representative team.

Dempsey still remembers the worst day of his life with a chilling clarity. It was the day he was summoned home from a friend’s house to receive the devastating news.

“They said Jennifer had fainted,” he told the Guardian newspaper. “She’d actually had a brain aneurysm. My dad found her and he was freaking out. I can remember, really clearly, arriving at the hospital and a little doubt forming in the back of mind: ‘What if this is it? What if my sister dies today?’

“You get there and everyone is crying. They tell you and your heart falls from your chest. You hit the ground and you cry for hours. You cry until your head aches.”

It took Dempsey a full year to get over it, to put some kind of structure and reasoning back into his young life. He found his solace in his first love, soccer, and threw himself into the sport with a fresh determination.

And a new goal celebration.

“It’s weird because I remember something she told me,” he said. “We would talk about death and she said, ‘If I ever pass away, do you want me to come back and let you know I’m OK?’ I said: ‘No, that would scare me too bad!’ We talked about it some more and she said, ‘Well, if I ever die I will help you get the ball in the net.’ And that’s why I look up to the sky now when I score - to remember her.”

National team fans have become increasingly grateful for Dempsey’s goals in recent times. No other American has scored on the biggest stage in soccer for eight years, with Dempsey’s strike against Ghana in the 2006 World Cup being the only goal by the U.S. (Italy’s Cristian Zaccardo scored an own goal against USA in ’06).

Dempsey’s progress since joining English Premier League side Fulham three years ago has been impressive and he has blossomed under the tutelage of manager Roy Hodgson. He is now, along with Landon Donovan, the U.S.’s primary attacking midfield threat.

Spectacular goals have become the forte of Dempsey, whose magical strike to beat Italian giant Juventus in the Europa League being the highlight of his season.

With the USA needing to beat Slovenia on Friday to enhance its bid for the knockout stage, Bob Bradley’s men would love to see Dempsey have another chance to salute his sister.

“It makes me feel pretty good to have things this way,” Dempsey said recently to Yahoo! Sports. “The moments I signal to her it is a happy time because I have just scored a goal. So she becomes symbolic with happiness, and that is a great way for me to remember her.”

Martin Rogers is a staff writer for Yahoo! Sports.

Labels: Bob Bradley, Clint Dempsey, football world cup, Robert Green, USA, World Cup, world cup news, world cup soccer, world cup soccer south africa, world cup south africa