SPH Larry Lam’s Passion For Soccer Flourishes with the Quakes

By San Jose Earthquakes

May 5^th, 2018

Soccer runs in San Jose Earthquakes Season Pass Holder Larry Lam’s blood. He started playing soccer from the moment he could walk in his native Vietnam, and his passion for the sport has stayed with him consistently throughout his life.

“I have played soccer ever since I could walk. I remember when I was little I played with inflatable plastic soccer balls,” Lam said. “I still have scars from playing soccer, including one on my face.”

Soccer was the number one sport in Vietnam, and as the oldest boy in a family of six, he spent a lot of time playing with his brothers growing up, and later on for his high school and the YMCA.

At 14 years old, he moved away from the soccer-crazed culture in Vietnam to the United States with his 12-year-old brother. It was 1980, and they moved to Reno, Nevada to live with an uncle.

SPH Larry Lam’s Passion For Soccer Flourishes with the Quakes

“I wanted to leave Vietnam for a better life in the U.S., even though we did not have enough money to pay for the trip. We had to pay it back on installments after I got here. I am the oldest boy in a family of six. I was the first to go and I was able help everybody else after me.

“It was sad moving to the United States. Soccer is the number one sport in Vietnam, but when I came here it was not. There was only high school soccer in Reno. I had to follow soccer from other countries, but they only showed 30 minutes of each half, with commercials.”

Lam soon started to play for the local YMCA soccer team and Hug High School. Soccer helped him with the adjustment to life in the U.S., and playing on the teams enabled him to participate in the soccer culture that he missed.

“I was very proud and humbled the very first time my homeroom teacher, Mrs. North, congratulated me and showed me a cutout of the local newspaper, which had my name on it and said that I scored for the school soccer team. She continued to post the cutouts on the classroom walls every time I scored for the school team.”

Two years after arriving in Reno, Lam came to the Bay Area to live with his cousin in Mountain View. The following years were difficult, and he faced challenges that many immigrants encounter as they try to start their lives in a new country.

“It was pretty hard for me when I was still here with nobody to support. I lived in my car and all that kind of stuff, but I stuck it out to get my degree. I was the first person in my family to get a college degree and after that I could help them out. I am proud of that.”

Lam graduated from University of Santa Barbara with a degree in engineering. After graduation, he petitioned for his family in Vietnam to come to the United States. He now has deep roots in the Bay Area, with family still joining him. His niece came over just three weeks ago.

He now lives in the Evergreen neighborhood in San Jose with his wife, and has three kids that have grown up and are starting families of their own.

Growing up, all three of Lam’s kids played soccer, and he was the coach for their YMCA team. Now when he has the opportunity, he tries to get the whole family together for Quakes games. When the Quakes played the first game ever at Levi’s Stadium on May 16, 2015, they all attended as the Quakes took on Orlando City SC.

Like many in San Jose, Lam works in the tech industry, and has season passes with his wife and coworkers. With the Quakes, Lam can participate in the soccer culture that is similar to what he grew up with.

“At work, I religiously try to recruit more people to be involved in soccer and go to the Quakes games. We have one Seattle fan in the office and I try to rub it in first thing in the morning when Seattle loses or the Quakes win.”

Lam has seen the Quakes evolve during his many years of following the team, and the most recent years have been some of his favorite. Victor Bernardez, Shea Salinas and Nick Lima are three of his all-time favorite Quakes players, and each of them played important parts in his favorite memories with the club.

Lam was present for the first match ever at Avaya Stadium in which the Quakes defeated the Chicago Fire 2-1, he has lived through several California Clasico comebacks and he celebrated as the Quakes clinched a playoff spot for the fist time in five years against Minnesota at the end of the 2017 season.

The combination of his soccer knowledge and coaching past finds him analyzing the Quakes matches and sharing his predictions with his friends and family.

“I am really into it. I live for soccer. I used to be a coach so I see a lot of these things; I go into every detail, I analyze everything. I tell my wife, ‘I know the guy that they are going to substitute next.’ Then they come out exactly how I told my wife because of the situation in the game.”

Lam likes the outlook that the Quakes have under the leadership of head coach Mikael Stahre.

“I think the coach is going in the right direction. I like his aggressiveness of attacking no matter what; we are still trying until the end of the game. Of all the games that we have watched this year, I think that we could have won any game. The chances we give off. We are almost there.”

At the end of the day, Lam knows the Quakes and has been with the club through thick and thin.

“There is so much history here. They have grown from small stadiums, like San Jose State’s Spartan Stadium. They moved around, they left the city and came back, but still this is San Jose. The first MLS game happened in San Jose. This is where it all began. It makes it really special. San Jose has huge diversity that is what makes it more exciting because the team has many players from all over the world. Everything is right about it.”

Footnotes

Told by Charlotte Muscroft

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FootNotes

Told by Charlotte Muscroft