The Bizarre Story of Taylor Graham’s International Career

Happy Birthday Taylor!

June 3

World football is known for throwing up bizarre and weird stories. Usually they involve obscure sides in faraway countries, but Seattle has its own tale that has passed into world soccer folklore. It involves popular Sounders FC centre-half Taylor Graham. On the face of it, Taylor is a blond-haired, blue-eyed, all-American boy from Fair Oaks, California, which sounds as gated a community as a place can sound. This makes the story of Taylor’s ascent to a world cup footballer all the stranger.

In 2008, Taylor Graham made three appearances for Puerto Rico’s international side who were just reappearing on the world scene. PR is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States, neither a state of the Union, nor an independent country. While Tony Cascarino, who made 88 appearances for the Republic of Ireland before the discovery he had no bloodline to a grandparent due to him being adopted made all the international headlines, Taylor’s international odyssey has so far remained the province of teammates giving him locker room stick.

The story itself is amusing. Taylor explains, “ I got a text from a buddy on January 1st 2008 asking if I wanted to play for the Puerto Rico national team. I thought it was a joke. He was not Puerto Rican, so how would he know? He proceeded to tell me that Colin Clarke (a Northern Irishman), the coach of the Puerto Rico Islanders USL team, had been named their national team coach and was going to call me to see if I had any interest.

Later that day I got a call from Colin. I was laughing ’cause I thought it was so strange. My first question was “do you know that I am not Puerto Rican, and my second was, how is this legal?” Colin told me that because Puerto Rico was an American territory, Americans could choose to forego their chance of playing for the USA to play for them. He said he called me because he thought I was a player that, to be honest, would not have the chance to represent the US, but someone who would like to be a part of the World Cup qualifying process for PR. To be honest he was right, I had never been in the mix for the US, or been called into camp.”

But the decision wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

“The hardest part of doing it was thinking that I was being somehow un-American. I told Colin that I needed to think about it and talk it over with my friends and family. After talking to my family, we all leaned towards doing it rather than not. It was in the off-season so I would not miss any other commitments. I did it because it would be an amazing life and soccer experience. Being a part of World Cup qualifying would be something that I could learn a lot from, and see soccer from a whole new perspective.

So I turned to Brian Schmetzer, my club manager at Seattle Sounders. After telling him about my dilemma, and answering all the same questions that I had asked myself, he told me with 100% assurance that it was something he thought I should do. Hearing that from Brian really solidified my decision that I was not thinking crazy.”

And so began Taylor Graham’s weird journey from Sounder to Borinquen, a colloquial term for a Puerto Rican.

“A week later I left for PR. We trained at the Olympic Training facility in PR, which despite the grand name was far from elegant. I shared bunks with other teammates, and there was minimal air conditioning and hot water. But it was an experience nonetheless.”

Puerto Rico had been far from a regular fixture on the international scene. They had been absent from competition for some time when they reappeared on January 16, 2008, with a 2-0 victory in a friendly against Bermuda, a friendly played to prepare for a World Cup Qualifier against the Dominican Republic scheduled for the 26th of March, 2008.

Taylor remembers it well, “First game was against Bermuda in Bermuda. We stayed in a resort, ate the most amazing food, and trained on pristine pitches. We won our first game 2-0 and I scored the first goal off a corner. Someone later told me it was the first win in 14 years. We were excited to put it mildly.”

To compound his goal scoring feats and Puerto Rico’s victorious return to international football, they also won the second game of the friendly series 1-0 three days later. Their last win had been against Barbados in 1994, also by a lone goal. Their last preparation game was against a much bigger fish. Trinidad and Tobago had just qualified for the World Cup finals in Germany two years ago where they had played England and Sweden, whom they held to a draw.

“We then returned to PR to play Trinidad and Tobago, who had been the last world cup. I do not think they expected much from us, and did not bring their first team, but when we were up 2-0 at half, I think their mentality changed. The game finished 2-2. It was disappointing not to win having been up, but I think that if someone asked us if we would take a draw before the match started, we would have been thrilled. A week later the FIFA world rankings came out and PR jumped about 25 spots from roughly 190 to 165. I could not stop laughing!”

Sadly for Taylor, the Trinidadians were not the only ones forced to sit up and take notice of the regional powerhouse that Puerto Rico was becoming. Other sides in the North American Soccer Federation (CONCACAF) began to take notice. And Taylor’s three game international career was over. Or was it?

“It was then that I heard other teams started complaining that PR was using Americans rather than Puerto Ricans. I found out a week later that CONCACAF clarified their rules, and that I was no longer eligible to play since I was not of PR descent, or have not lived on the island for two years. But Colin did say that because of this rule clarification, I am still available to play for the US should that be an opportunity.”

There you have it Mr. Bradley. If you’re looking for a centre-half with international experience and a goal under his belt, look no further than Taylor Graham. But don’t ask him to play against Puerto Rico. Brian Schmetzer could do without another knock on the door.

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