It’s a wunderkind life for two FC Dallas teens

FRISCO -- It takes exactly three minutes by electric scooter to get from Brek Shea's and Josh Lambo's swanky loft apartment to the FC Dallas locker room.

If Shea wakes up in time, he walks across Main Street, around Pizza Hut Park and into FC Dallas' training facility.

If he's running late, his lime-green scooter, "The Hulk," provides quick transport.

Shea, 18, and Lambo, 17, are living like college students in a dorm, but, instead of slogging through American history, they begin their days training as professionals with the local Major League Soccer team.

The rest of the day ... well, that’s when the games really begin.

"I love it," Shea said. "I love living on my own. Basically, every night’s a Friday night. No homework, no parents, but you’ve got to be smart, though, because we practice every day. You get to have fun, but, at the same time, you have to be focused on soccer. It’s the main reason we’re here."

Shea and Lambo are dynamic MLS prospects with Generation adidas contracts, meaning that their $78,000 guaranteed salaries don’t count against Dallas’ salary cap and that they don’t have to battle for a spot on the 18-man roster.

However, that doesn’t mean they are just practice bodies.

Shea sat on the bench with the full U.S. national team during the recent World Cup qualifier in Barbados.

Lambo, formerly the U.S. under-17 goalkeeper, hasn’t played for Dallas’ first team, but only because he sustained a broken jaw and concussion during a reserve match March 30.

They spent their early teens in residency at the U.S. Soccer program in Bradenton, Fla., and are two of the hardest workers come practice time. Both routinely put in extra work after training.

And they fit the "Odd Couple" roles almost perfectly.

Lambo cooks.

This made things difficult for Shea when Lambo broke his jaw and was forced to go on a liquid diet. Shea claims he made smoothies for his roommate, but Lambo’s mother also moved into the third bedroom for a week after the injury.

Lambo keeps the third story apartment clean and often gripes at Shea to pick up his clothes, all his clothes.

Shea, well, he has a unique haircut. Teammate Anthony Wallace, 19, who occasionally flops down on the Lambo-Shea couch, struggled to classify the Shea hairstyle, saying, "That haircut, I don’t, I don’t know what you call that."

Lambo’s tightly cut hair reflects his goal-oriented personality. He carries a list in his wallet that includes crayon-, pencil- and pen-written goals, such as make eighth-grade honor roll and get a date with Hillary Duff.

He accomplished the first. He’s still waiting on No. 2.

Shea reigns as the apartment table tennis champ because, rather than a dining room set, the space is taken up by the Shea family’s old pingpong table.

Lambo’s real guitar and copy of Guitar Hero Rocks the ’80s for PlayStation 2 decorate the apartment.

Lambo indeed rocks at Guitar Hero, and one of his goals is to meet musician Dave Matthews.

Lambo, unlike Shea, has a driver’s license, though the development around Pizza Hut Park affords little need to go far from their area. The first level of their apartment complex features retail shops and restaurants.

On average, the professional day ends by noon, leaving plenty of downtime for made-up games, such as putting contests around the nearly 4-foot wide red beanbag chair. They also play a pingpong game called whelps, in which the loser has to remove his shirt and get blasted by pingpong balls.

They also spend time making appearances at youth clinics or playing Nintendo Wii. The freedom is a far cry than the two years spent in residency, where off-campus visits were supervised and every move scrutinized.

"We’re very, very fortunate. We graduated early and have this unbelievable opportunity to live our dreams at 17, 18," Lambo said. "It’s a lot different than what we were used to. ... You have to pace yourself and figure out what to do with your downtime because, in reality, we work four hours a day max."

Well, plus that three-minute commute.

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