BOCHUM, Germany — In a cellblock somewhere in the United States, a young man named Chancy sits and listens to time tick slowly away.
For him, the World Cup might as well be on the moon. Somewhere in the past, Chancy made a wrong turn. He went one way and his best friend, Eddie Johnson, went the other.
Johnson, 22, the youngest player on the U.S. World Cup team, is in Germany, preparing for the United States' all-important third World Cup match, against Ghana on Thursday. He played less than a half in the opening loss to the Czech Republic and watched in frustration from the bench when the U.S. tied Italy.
With any luck, Johnson will get the chance Thursday to have his own impact on the World Cup.
It could easily have been Chancy. Let Johnson tell the story.
"I had a buddy of mine who I grew up with in the same projects," Johnson began.
"His name was Chancy. He's incarcerated right now. He was an unbelievable athlete. He always had the talent but always would do bad things and wasn't making good decisions."
One of Chancy's better decisions was to join Johnson on the soccer field, at least for a little while.
"If he was still playing, he'd probably be in the same position as I am because he picked it up so quick," Johnson said. "I was like, 'Man, if this kid would have started when I did, he'd have been unbelievable.' "
Johnson has been something of an eye-opener himself.
The kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Bunnell, Fla., the kid with the single mom, the kid who had to make do on food stamps and handouts, the kid who hung out with the wrong crowd and almost paid the price, is riding high and aiming higher.
On the U.S. team Johnson is the fastest and, along with defender Oguchi Onyewu, the one seen with the most upside.
If Johnson can make a good impression in Germany, it could be his ticket to a European club and all the fame and financial security such a move brings. Not that Johnson is hurting. He is the third-highest-paid player in Major League Soccer, earning about $875,000 a year playing for the Kansas City Wizards.
That's a far cry from his childhood and teenage days in Bunnell.
"When I go back home now, it's funny because I can picture myself as a little kid asking the older people for money. 'You got two dollars?' Two dollars was a lot. If you got a dollar, you could go to like the corner store and buy some bubble gum," Johnson said.
