Former World Cup Goalie
Gets a Kick out of Xbox 360

Tony Meola has been on two U.S. World Cup teams, as a starting goalie for the 1994 team, and as a back-up in 2002. Meola is still active in professional soccer, serving as the goalkeeper for Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls. He's the leading goalie in MLS history for shutouts (48), minutes played (17,516), games played (194), saves (886) and catches/punches (595).

Meola now plays professional soccer.

Meola served as the spokesman for the Xbox Live® Xbox Cup, which is taking place in Germany as part of the events surrounding the World Cup. Meola announced the three members of the U.S. Team that will fly to Berlin to compete in EA Sports™ 2006 FIFA World Cup on Xbox 360™ for a chance to take home the top prize.

"I partnered up with Xbox® at a time in soccer where the World Cup is front and center," said Meola. "This only comes around once every four years and it's very important for our sport. Xbox decided to put a little tournament together. Unfortunately for me, I'm not getting to go to Germany, but three other guys are getting the chance to go to the World Cup in the Xbox Finals. These three players—David McLeese, Eddie Terrell and Greg Hengeli—will get a chance to play FIFA World Cup in Berlin."

TV style presentation makes for an authentic World Cup experience.

The World Cup
Meola's logged a lot of hours watching the World Cup on TV. He gave a few thoughts on who he thinks will emerge victorious when all is said and done.

"I think, certainly, everybody talks about Brazil," said Meola. "They're the easy choice for me. I think Argentina is a team to look out for. And a team that's on the outside from a soccer standpoint is Sweden. They were in the semi-finals in 1994 and they've got some great talent on that team and they could be the surprise of the tournament."

The great thing about the new World Cup videogame is that it gives fans a new outlet to change history, or at least erase the feeling that a devastating loss can leave.

"You can change the results of the World Cup," said Meola. "There are probably a lot of US soccer fans that would like to go back and redo that US-Czech Republic game. Hopefully, those guys will straighten that out in the near future."

Meola thinks it has been a great World Cup tournament with plenty of compelling games.

"I think soccer continues to grow and grow," said Meola. "I saw the World Cup ratings came out and the US game was the most-watched sporting event on ESPN2. It all just goes hand in hand. We continue to build, whether it's Xbox or World Cup or Major League Soccer, soccer can continue to get bigger and bigger."

Still Gaming
EA Sports has already released two soccer games on Xbox 360 and Konami has a new Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution 2007 game coming out on Xbox next year. The more soccer games the better, as far as Meola is concerned.

"From a standpoint of being recognizable, the more that people are exposed to the names and the faces, the more they're going to identify with these players," said Meola. "For us, we're still a growing sport. We need every opportunity we can get to grow. The more they know their names, the more they're going to identify them when they see them on TV or at a game, and the more they're going to want to be like them and the more fans we'll have for the sport."

Meola said he's too old at 37 to have been part of the videogame generation, but he spends a lot of time playing videogames with his son. He's amazed at the visuals on Xbox 360.

"The guys look much better in the videogames than they do in real life, and that's always a positive," said Meola. "They make you look good. Videogames have certainly come a long way. When I was playing videogames, back in the day, we couldn't see sweat on a player's brow."

Take control and change World Cup history

The Next Generation of Soccer
Meola said his Red Bull team has two Xbox 360s in the locker room, but his younger teammates are always playing them.

"Soccer is one of the favorites," said Meola. "We play a lot of Tiger Woods golf. Everyone is always trying to be the best at videogames. Professional athletes, in general, I think are just drawn to sitting in front of the TV and competing a little bit and it's no different in our locker room."

When asked what advice he'd give to a gamer playing the new 2006 FIFA World Cup game, Meola said to pick Brazil, because they're always going to be at the top of their game. As far as soccer strategies go, he had some more thoughts.

"Just like in the real game, when you have the ball, you have to look for other places to pass it to," said Meola. "Back in the old videogames, you could take one guy and dribble the ball all the way down the field. That was the case in all videogame sports. Now if you do that, you get the ball stolen. Just like in the real game, you have to look around the field and pass the ball to the open player."

Article by John Gaudiosi