<p>Two years after winning a silver medal, power soccer standout Michael Archer hopes to one day view it as a silver lining.</p>
<p>Archer, a starting center for Team USA, was traveling back from Kissimmee, Florida, host of the 2017 power soccer World Cup, a one-goal loss to France in the championship match fresh in his mind.</p>
<p>“The whole thought in 2017 was that this is it. I’m done after this,” said Archer, a Greenwood resident who helped his country win gold in the 2007 World Cup in Tokyo, Japan, and again four years later in Paris, France.</p>
<p>“After we lost, I thought on the way home how I couldn’t go out that way. We were driving, so I had a lot of time to think about it.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>As if to demonstrate his desire to any non-believers, Archer won Most Valuable Player honors earlier this month leading Team USA to a dominant four-game sweep at a 2021 World Cup qualifier played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.</p>
<p>Team USA outscored its opponents by a total of 20-1. Archer played a role in all but four American goals, scoring nine himself to go along with seven assists. Archer, 29, a 2008 graduate of Greenwood Community High School, won the Golden Guard award given to the player with the most goals.</p>
<p>Power soccer is a sport for disabled persons. Players compete while seated in a power chair, with maximum game speed being 6.2 miles per hour. Games feature a 13-inch ball with four players on the floor for each team — two wings, a center and a goalie.</p>
<p>Archer was born with arthrogryposis, a disorder that stiffens one’s joints and initiates underdevelopment in muscles. As a result, Archer’s right arm is always bent, while his left arm remains straight all of the time.</p>
<p>Now married, Archer and his wife, Alyssa, have two young children. Their son Brantley turns 3 in October, while daughter Cayley just turned 1. Archer, a Purdue University graduate, works as a supervisor at Lids Distribution Center in Indianapolis.</p>
<p>Archer can do limited walking, but mostly uses a wheelchair to get around. He has been playing power soccer internationally since he was 17.</p>
<p>“Power soccer is one of the disabled sports where you’re on your own,” said Team USA coach Mike Hayes, who lives in Greenwood and is Archer’s stepfather. “He has worked so hard to work on his game to be the best player in the U.S., if not the world.</p>
<p>“At first Michael was just a player. Now he’s a role model of younger athletes coming into the game. He kicks the ball very hard and very accurately to his teammates to set them up for goals. It makes him a dangerous player on the floor.”</p>
<p>The 2021 power soccer World Cup will be played in Sydney, Australia. He looks forward to the challenge of striving to get better.</p>
<p>“Power soccer is one of the things I can do on my own and be competitive at. My wife said whatever I wanted to do, she was there to support me,” Archer said. “I’m not dreading the day I retire from power soccer, but it is going to be different having a lot of extra time.”</p>
<p>The goal is to own three gold medals to remind him of the good times.</p>
