This Is the Los Angeles Sol: Aya Miyama

Part Four in a series of articles on the players that make up the 2009 Los Angeles Sol.

The Los Angeles Sol, like many teams in Women's Professional Soccer, feature players from around the world whose technique, superior finishing and ball movement have been forged and strengthened with the winds of time.

One of those players is midfielder Aya Miyama. When she signed with the Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) in February 2009, the English press at the Home Depot Center christened Miyama as the "David Beckham" of the Sol for her curling shots.

It was a flattering comment for a football player  who, to this day, compares herself to no one-not even Beckham-but her own inner strength and will.

Miyama was born on January 28, 1985 in Oamishirasato, a bedroom community located on the outskirts of Chiba City, the capital of Chiba Prefecture.

Chiba City is home of the longest suspended monorail in the world, the Chiba Urban Monorail, the first artificial beach in Japan known as Inage Beach, and the Kasori Shellmound, the largest in the world at 134,000 square meters.

Chiba is also the home of JEF United Ichihara Chiba, a J.League club whose history was built by the hands and feet of railroad workers and electricians. It gained its current name in 2003 to commemorate the unity of its memorable past.

At the Fukuda Denshi Arena, one can hear and witness the fans of the red, gold and green show their undying support, their fervent appreciation for a team whose greatest accomplishment came in 1987, when they won the Asian Club Championship, the precursor to the AFC Champions League.

Like Han Duan, Miyama picked up football from a devoted father who embraced the game like so many around the world. As she honed her skills, she started her playing career as a member of the team her father founded, NTV Menina.

Eventually, she spent two seasons with NTV Beleza, one of the more storied clubs competing in the Nadeshiko League (the women's version of the J.League), helping Beleza win a title in 2000.

After the 2000 season, Miyama chose to wrap up her education, and play with the boys on her high school team for a couple of seasons. It's a risk that parallels that of fellow teammate Marta, who also chose to play with the boys to hone the talent lying within.

In 2003, manager Midori Honda of Okayama Yunogo Belle approached Miyama and offered her an opportunity to further develop her skills as a midfielder.

It would be the start of six seasons where Miyama's technical savvy and finishing would be realized.

From 2003-2008, Miyama scored 62 goals in 110 appearances for Yunogo Belle. The number 10 for Yunogo had been so instrumental to the survival of the team staying in Division I of the Nadeshiko League that she was voted as the club's best player in 2007 and 2008.

And her solid knack for scoring brought the attention of Eiji Ueda, then the manager for the Japanese women's national team, or Nadeshiko Japan, as they are called.

In 2003, Miyama made her debut for Nadeshiko Japan. The results have been astounding.

As member of the squad, playing alongside the Washington Freedom's Homare Sawa and FC Gold Pride's Eriko Arakawa, Miyama led Japan to at least a quarterfinal finish at the past two Olympic Games, top four finishes at the past three AFC Women's Asian Cups, and success at the Women's East Asian Cup through a 3rd place finish in 2005 and a championship in 2008.

Miyama has scored 19 goals in 68 international appearances. In the 2007 Women's World Cup in China, she was instrumental in securing a 2-2 draw with Kelly Smith and England through her delivery from the penalty spot.

There is no surprise that Miyama is one of the most respected women players to come from the Land of the Rising Sun. In a poll of the best female footballers by FIFA, she finished fourth in 2003 and fifth in 2007.

When Miyama arrived in Los Angeles, she made a promise to herself to play with the best in the world. Yunogo Belle and Nadeshiko Japan opened the door for Aya Miyama. Now, as the No. 8 for the Sol walks through it the spotlight falls on her, as she takes her game to a grander stage: the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

When the press lauded the comparison, she said, "I don't want to be compared with Beckham."

And it's true.

Because if the chanters in Victoria Street acknowledge that there is only one David Beckham, shouldn't it also be a fact that there is only one Aya Miyama?