Growing up in Brooklyn, Edson Elcock had dreams of playing at Camp Nou with the likes of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry.
But those Barcelona dreams are now a Richmond reality. The speedy 26-year-old midfielder is a regular starter with the Kickers, a USL Pro squad and he has a Zen-like understanding of his place in the soccer universe.
“Your goal is always to exceed and play at the highest level that you want to play at, but sometimes it doesn’t go that way or go that way as fast as you’d like,” Elcock said. “I just have to take what’s given to me.”
Elcock was back home Friday night, taking on F.C. New York in front of several friends and family at Adelphi’s Motamed Field. It was his second time facing the first-year professional club. In his first game at St. John’s Belson Stadium, he scored a goal in a 2-0 win.
“I don’t get to come home as often to play in front of my family,” Elcock said. “It’s always special to come home and put on a show.”
He didn’t score Friday night in a scoreless draw, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. In the 58th minute, he chipped the ball just over the bar with F.C. New York keeper Steven Diaz off his line. Sixteen minutes later, Elcock took on three defenders and played a ball to the back post that just missed halftime substitute Matthew Delicate.
In the 78th minute, the 5-foot-7 Elcock flicked a header just wide of the net.
“He’s got great pace, a superb work rate and if we can get the ball wide to him in good positions one-v-one, invariably he’s going to make an impact, either by beating someone one-v-one or knocking it down the line and crossing it and he’s done a good job of being on the back post when the ball is played down the left side,” Richmond coach Leigh Cowlishaw said. “We want to get the ball to foot or in space and utilize his athleticism and his energy.”
As a prodigy at Brooklyn Friends Academy, where he set a school-record for goals as a senior in 2002, as well as in the Brooklyn Knights youth ranks, Elcock was always known as a pacy player with a knack for scoring goals.
That hasn’t changed.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?” said Elcock, who also won a New York State Federation Class C basketball title with Brooklyn Friends. “I’m doing the same things since I was like 12 or 13. As the years on, I just continued progressing and added on to my attributes.”
Elcock went to Division II Wingate University for a year and transferred to Old Dominion where he really blossomed, earning first team All-American honors in 2006.
“My game definitely progressed at Old Dominion,” Elcock said. “The coaching I got at ODU, you can’t deny that. Those guys helped me out a lot in terms of maturing as a player, physically and mentally they really toughened me up.”
Elcock was selected by Sporting KC in the third round of the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, but he never broken into the first team, making a few reserve team appearances before being waived at year’s end.
“People might not think of it as the ideal situation, but I took it as a stepping stone,” Elcock said. “I didn’t play that much, but I played on a team with a lot of good professional players and I learned a lot. I practiced every day with some of the best players in MLS so I can’t complain about that.”
In 2008, Elcock played briefly for the Puerto Rico Islanders and a year later was signed by Richmond, helping the Kickers win the 2009 USL Second Division title and he’s been there ever since.
Barcelona might be only a dream, but Major League Soccer is still a possibility. However, if it doesn’t happen, Elcock is still pleased to be playing the sport he loves for a living.
“At the end of the day, I’m happy,” Elcock said. “If MLS comes up, it comes up, but if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It’s not where I want to be, obviously I have higher goals I want to set. I’m not comfortable, but I’m happy.”