by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
Brandon Moss doesn't have any trouble remembering how blissful college soccer was now that he's a professional.
If the ex-UNM men's soccer player made a mistake playing for the Lobos, it was no big deal, Moss said. As captain he led the Lobos to the NCAA National Championships.
In his first year with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, things have changed.
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"It's a lot different than at UNM where I could do no wrong," Moss said. "We made it to the finals in the College Cup, and you think you know what you're doing when you get here, and you realize that you have no idea."
Moss knows what he's doing now. The midfielder has started all four games for the 1-2-1 Crew and played 90 minutes in every game except for one. But playing time doesn't necessitate constant praise, or any praise for that matter.
"I take a lot of heat and a lot of criticism," Moss said. "Here, I'm always getting yelled at in practice to play faster, or to stop taking so many touches, or that I'm not doing this or not doing that. Yeah, in that regard it's been frustrating."
Despite coaches constantly riding him, Moss has more than held his own. He's one of two rookies on the team who sees significant playing time, with Kei Kamara being the other one.
And he has a contract that keeps him living comfortably.
He's making the league minimum of $28,000, but with that comes bonuses of $5,000 for starting 75 percent of the team's games this season, $5,000 if he's named Rookie of the Year, and $5,000 if he's named to the MLS All-Star team. The contract lasts until the end of the season, but after that, if he's performed well, Moss said, he can ask for a new one.
Moss said making the starting lineup of a professional soccer team isn't something he can describe easily after he thought it might not happen in the first place. He didn't receive an invitation to the MLS Combine before the draft, in which the top players play in front of MLS general managers and coaches. Then, the Crew waited until the third round to take him.
"Really it's something else," he said. "To go from being a guy who was initially left out of the combine, to being a third-round pick - it's an incredible feeling."
Now that he's in his first year, Moss is trying to shun the rookie label. He said it's an easy excuse that he doesn't want to use any more.
"I'm learning to hate that word," he said. "It's more of a security blanket than anything, where if you make a mistake you can just blame it on being a rookie. It's like the commentators who say, 'He's just a rookie,' when you make a mistake."
After only four games, Moss said he's sick of the judgments that come with being a first-year player in the league. He said he's put in the work to be accepted now.
"I don't see myself as a rookie anymore," he said. "I feel like I belong and that rookie title needs to be eliminated."
