Mark Chung
Encyclopedia
Mark Chung is a former American soccer midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...

 who, after a season in the Continental Indoor Soccer League
Continental Indoor Soccer League
The Continental Indoor Soccer League was an indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997.-History:When the Major Soccer League folded in the summer of 1992, two of its former teams joined a group of hockey and basketball arena owners led by Ron Weinstein who wanted to create a league to...

, played ten seasons in Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

. He also earned twenty-four caps, scoring two goals, with the U.S. national team
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

.

Youth and college

Chung was born in Toronto to Chinese Jamaican
Chinese Jamaican
Chinese Jamaicans are the descendants of migrants from China to Jamaica. Early migrants came in the 19th century; there was another wave of migration in the 1980s and 1990s...

 parents. His family moved from Toronto to Pembroke Pines, Florida
Pembroke Pines, Florida
Pembroke Pines is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city had a population of 154,750 at the 2010 census, making it the second most populous city in Broward County, the tenth most populous in Florida, and the 150th most populous in the United States...

 when Chung was twelve. These moves created a dilemma for Chung when he received invitations to play from three national teams, the United States
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

, Canada
Canada men's national soccer team
The Canada men's national soccer team represents Canada in international soccer competitions at the senior men's level. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association and compete in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football .Their most significant...

 and Jamaica
Jamaica national football team
The Jamaica national football team is the national team of Jamaica and is controlled by the Jamaica Football Federation. After decades in CONCACAF obscurity, they gained many fans throughout the world after they qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup...

. He ultimately elected to play for the U.S.http://www.asianweek.com/2002_11_29/sports_soccer.html Following high school, Chung attended the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...

 where he studied finance. He also played on the men's soccer team from 1988 to 1992, finishing his collegiate soccer career with twenty-five assists.

CISL

In 1995, Chung played with the San Diego Sockers of the Continental Indoor Soccer League
Continental Indoor Soccer League
The Continental Indoor Soccer League was an indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997.-History:When the Major Soccer League folded in the summer of 1992, two of its former teams joined a group of hockey and basketball arena owners led by Ron Weinstein who wanted to create a league to...

 (CISL). He scored twenty-nine goals en route to being named the league's Rookie of the Year.

MLS

Chung was drafted in the first round (sixth overall) by the Kansas City Wiz
Kansas City Wizards
Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in Kansas City, Kansas that competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States of America and Canada...

 in the MLS Inaugural Draft
1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft
The MLS Inaugural Player Draft, held before Major League Soccer's initial 1996 season, distributed players who had already graduated from college to the league's ten inaugural teams. The draft occurred on February 6 and 7, 1996...

, and finished 1996 with eight goals and nine assists. Chung would be a mainstay at Kansas City for the next two years, was named to his first MLS Best XI
MLS Best XI
The MLS Best XI is an acknowledgement of the best eleven players in the league in a given season for Major League Soccer in Canada and the United States.-Winners:*Players in bold text also won the Major League Soccer MVP Award award for that season....

 in 1997, and would lead all of MLS in games played at the end of its first three seasons, with 97. After 1998, Kansas City traded Chung to the MetroStars
Metrostars
Metrostar may refer to:*New York Red Bulls, formerly called the "MetroStars", a soccer team from New York*Manila Metro Rail Transit System, popularly called "The Metrostar Express", a part of the metropolitan rail system in Manila...

, with Mike Ammann
Mike Ammann
Mike Ammann is a retired American soccer goalkeeper who played professionally in England and Major League Soccer.-Youth:...

 in exchange for Tony Meola
Tony Meola
Antonio Michael "Tony" Meola is an American former soccer goalkeeper who played for the United States national team at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, and from 1996 to 2006 played in Major League Soccer, the U.S. top soccer division, where he obtained multiple honors...

 and Alexi Lalas
Alexi Lalas
Panayotis Alexander Lalas is a retired American soccer player who played mostly as a defender for the United States national team in the 1994 FIFA World Cup...

. He would play with the MetroStars for the next three seasons, but was greatly underused by Metro coach Octavio Zambrano
Octavio Zambrano
Octavio Zambrano is one of the all-time winningest coaches in Major League Soccer history, .-Player:...

. Chung called the role he played with the Metros an "idiot left wing". He was traded again before the 2002 season, this time to the Colorado Rapids
Colorado Rapids
The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league...

 in exchange for a draft pick. Chung was very successful with the Rapids, making MLS Best XI's in both 2002 and 2003. However, with a coaching change to Fernando Clavijo
Fernando Clavijo
Fernando Clavijo is a retired American soccer football defender and former head coach of the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. He played three seasons in the American Soccer League, two in the North American Soccer League and ten in the Major Indoor Soccer League...

 in 2005, he became unhappy, and requested a trade. The wish was granted, as Chung was sent to San Jose for an allocation
Allocation (MLS)
In Major League Soccer, an allocation represents an amount of money teams can use to sign players and/or allocate to their salaries to get under the salary cap. Allocations are given to teams that have missed the playoffs the previous seasons, given to expansion teams, or awarded as compensation...

. In ten years of MLS league play, he scored 61 goals and added 76 assists.

Chung retired after the Quakes moved to Houston after the 2006 season. Upon his retirement, he had played in 278 league matches, one of the highest totals in MLS history. In 2008, he played one game with the Treasure Coast Galleons of the Florida Elite Soccer League.

National team

Despite a significant amount of success in MLS, Chung never had a significant role in the U.S. national team
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

. Chung made his first appearance April 4, 1992 against China
China national football team
The China PR national football team is the national association football team of the People's Republic of China and is governed by the Chinese Football Association...

, but in total made only 24 appearances, and scored only two goals.He was the first of two Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 players to play for the USA
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

,the second was Brian Ching
Brian Ching
Brian Ching is an American professional soccer forward currently playing for the Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer.-Youth and College:...

 who was the first Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

an to play for the USA
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

.
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