Growing up in New Jersey, Chris Lema would have enchiladas for dinner one day, and caldo gallego the next. He has three passports: U.S., Mexican and Spanish. He grew up watching Chivas and Deportivo de La Coruña games with his parents, but his dream was to play for the club that played a couple of blocks away from home in the Harrison area.
“I actually grew up in the Harrison area, a couple blocks away from the arena,” said Lema. “And I mean, when I heard that the New York Red Bulls were locating in the area, I was immediately interested. At the age of 13, I got contacted to go play with the U-14s at New York Red Bulls, and I thought, well, this is probably the next step.”
With Red Bulls II, Lema became the all-time leader in career games started (56) and minutes played (5,008). The midfielder feels that his time under John Wolyniec’s watch will help him a lot as he seeks to get first team minutes.
“It's extremely important,” he said. “John Wolyniec and the coaching staff of Red Bulls II do a really good job of being able to implement the style, the system and helping you adapt. Then be able to transition into what the first team does, so being able to get all those minutes, all those starts, all that experience truly has helped me to be able to make this next jump now.”
The opportunity to grow up in the Academy and then play with the USL team allowed Lema to get a good sense of what it means to play for the Red Bulls. He will never forget the time that first team players celebrated a goal he scored while playing for the U-18s.
“I remember being with the U-18s, and I believe we were playing against Delco or some team in the Academy, and the first team was training at the same time we were playing in the Training Facility, and I scored a goal,” he said. “And you could just see Bradley Wright-Philips and some other big names from back in the day, then just start celebrating the goal that I scored on the training field, you know, and it gives you that little extra push to want to be where they're at.
“The same was for when I was in the USL team, you sometimes walk out to training and you'd see the first team guys, having left everything on the field, and it just made you want to push more in your own practices, and it made you want to make that jump even more. You wanted to be with those guys.”
As a midfielder in the Red Bulls, Lema understands that there are certain elements that he needs to master.
“I think most players, especially midfielders in the current soccer world think of midfielders as being just technical connectors; they connect the backline to the frontline, but here it takes a whole another dimension,” he said. “Not only do you have to be able to do that, but you have to be able to bring the intensity every day. Be able to work hard, everybody says they work hard, but here it's, as I said, another element. It's like another level to it, so you have to be able to work hard, do the dirty work but also be able to be the maestro they say that a center midfielder should be.”
During the preseason, Chris Armas and the coaching staff gave him several pointers as he integrated with the first team.
“When they saw me with the second team, they told me that I have a lot of qualities to offer to the first team, that I have to use them,” said Lema. “Although the football in MLS is a bit quicker, more physical than in USL, they say I’m a smart player. I don’t have to be super strong, too fast, too athletic to play in MLS. I have to use my brain more, play intelligently. They also tell me to play with more confidence, of course, a player that’s barely making the jump maybe doesn’t have full confidence from the start, but they tell me to have confidence because they and the rest of the team have confidence in me.”
His time at Georgetown University allowed him to grow as a person, and as a first generation son to Mexican and Spanish parents, getting a degree from one of the country’s important universities was an important achievement.
Lema got a degree in Marketing and Business and smiles as he tells the story of when the degree arrived at his home in New Jersey.
“I had to leave the university to become a professional player but still had one course to complete,” he said. “But my dad told me, ‘You have to take that course!’ So I took it, and officially graduated. When the diploma arrived in the mail, my dad immediately went to buy a frame, so he could place it in the living room by the TV. It’s still sitting there like a soccer trophy.”
There’s not a day in which Lema doesn’t dream about his debut at Red Bull Arena.
“I dream it in different ways. I score, give an assist, or sometimes I don’t do anything. Just simply to see my number on the substitution board; I enter, then wake up.
“I dream a lot about the debut.”
To listen to the entire bilingual interview, click play. First half of the interview in English and second half in Spanish (starts at 6:10):
