Moment Arrives for Adu

Freddy Adu’s much-anticipated professional debut is at hand. He will join D.C. United for its Major League Soccer opener against the San Jose Earthquakes today at 1 p.m. PST in RFK Stadium.

The game will be shown on Channel 7, the only MLS regular-season game scheduled to be aired on ABC this season.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if all the nerves hit me at that point,” said Adu, 14, of the approaching kickoff to his pro career.

It remained uncertain Friday whether Adu will be a starter or come off the bench. Either way, D.C. United Coach Peter Nowak promised Adu “a lot” of playing time in the season’s first few games.

“Freddy’s going to play different parts of the field,” Nowak said. “He is dangerous. He can come back, be on the wing, on the right, on the left, middle. We give him freedom. He’s a good finisher.”

How quickly Adu adapts remains to be seen.

Adu, the youngest professional athlete in a major American sports league since 1887, scored one goal, set up a free-kick goal and drew a penalty-kick foul that wasn’t converted in D.C. United’s three exhibition games.

Because of his age, his $500,000 salary -- highest in MLS -- and upcoming commercial endorsements, Adu figures to be playing with a fairly large target on his jersey. Adu is a deft dribbler, but opponents still caught him and delivered brutal fouls while he led the United States in scoring during the FIFA Under-17 World Championship last summer in Finland.

Last week, San Jose’s Landon Donovan said, jokingly, “There’s a bet going around in our locker room to see who kicks him first on Saturday.”

Nowak wasn’t amused.

“I can smell this kind of stuff from my lawn,” he said. “I know what’s going on in the locker room when this kind of stuff starts. I’m not going to tolerate any of that. That’s the answer to the questions about jealousy on salaries and all the commercial stuff.”

Adu said he’s prepared for whatever his opponents have in store for him.

“When the ball comes to me, I just have to do the one-, two-touch and keep it going,” he said. “When the right time comes, and you have a one-on-one, you take somebody on and take it.”

Adu has shown an uncanny ability to block out distractions that might have paralyzed others his age. About 75 reporters and photographers attended D.C. United’s practice Wednesday.

Having graduated from an accelerated high school program for athletes in Florida, where he lived the last two seasons, it seemed the only thing holding Adu back was his lack of a driver’s license.

As it happens, Adu’s uncle has a car service business, which offers the young man an alternative if his mother -- the ultimate soccer mom -- cannot drive him.

More About Freddy

Adu and Pele have filmed a soft drink commercial together.

Titled “World Cup,” Adu and Pele compete on the field for the last bottle of a soft drink. The spot is scheduled to air during today’s telecast of the D.C. United-San Jose game.

Pele became an international sensation at the age of 17, after his World Cup debut with Brazil in 1958.

News From Abroad

Reports that the West German team that won the 1954 World Cup used performance-enhancing drugs are untrue, according to the German Football Assn. They received only vitamin treatments, officials said.

*

Real Madrid is set to pay Manchester United’s Ruud Van Nistelrooy up to $222,000 a week in an attempt to lure the Dutch striker to the Spanish club next season, according to the Sun, a British tabloid.

Manchester United battles Arsenal today in a semifinal for England’s FA Cup.

-- Compiled by Elliott Teaford