When the time came to choose colleges, Justin and Alex Lee deviated from the plan.
The plan was for the identical twins to go to college together and continue to play soccer together, as they had in high school at Col. Zadok Magruder High in Rockville, Md.
What happened was Justin fell for Penn State, Alex fell for Maryland, and the plan was scrapped.
Things started swimmingly last fall as the twins adjusted to college life 199 miles apart.
Justin racked up 14 starts and played all 19 games at right back for the Nittany Lions. Alex played in 13 games for the Terrapins as they went on win the national championship.
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Eleven months after the Terps celebrated on the field in Frisco, Texas, the Nittany Lions gathered in a cramped conference room in Rec Hall to find out their path to the College Cup. Three legs of the bracket flashed on the screen, but no Penn State.
The last quarter of the bracket was posted on the selection show.
There was Penn State, sitting pretty with a little numeral next to its name meaning the Lions had earned the seventh seed in tournament and a home game Sunday.
And who was right there, right next to Penn State, in the first-round game to determine the Nittany Lions' second-round opponent?
Maryland against Loyola (Md.). A game the Terrapins should -- and did -- win.
The twins could play each other. Maybe not directly, as Alex was switched from striker to right back to replenish a back line ravaged by graduation. Mirror images. Same size, same build, same spot on the field, but different numbers, different colors.
Right? Well, not quite.
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Go back to the night of Oct. 10, a typical early fall evening.
Alex was in Washington, D.C., with some teammates that Saturday, just a stone's throw from Maryland's College Park campus. Alex was hit by a car in the street.
"It was pretty shocking when they told me I was hit by a car," Alex said of waking up in the hospital. He doesn't remember the accident.
He was rushed to the hospital with bleeding in his brain and a fractured skull. Justin found out an hour later.
"I didn't really get the details," Justin said. "I didn't really know what was going on, but it was kind of nerve-wracking to hear that he got hit by a car and I didn't really know what was happening. I was kind of anxious to find out what was going on with him."
Then Justin woke up Sunday and had to wipe his mind clear, because the Nittany Lions had a home date with the highly-ranked Northwestern Wildcats.
He started, as usual, and took one shot as Penn State played the visitors to a 1-1 tie. An observer wouldn't have known that his twin brother, his best friend, was lying in a hospital bed some 200 miles away.
After the game, Justin went to see Alex. His coach excused him from the team to see his twin.
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It's Thursday now. Justin cruises on his bike to practice in the November rain. You wouldn't know what his twin went through just six weeks ago from watching.
The Nittany Lions are loose yet focused, ready for whichever Maryland-based team emerges Thursday to challenge their Jeffrey Field supremacy.
Even though Alex is still out recovering from his injuries, the twins can reunite. For the first time since their undefeated 2007 state championship team, the Lee brothers are back together, with a soccer field in the middle.
However, the game is slightly bittersweet for both.
"I know a lot of the guys there, because I'm from Maryland," Justin said. "I'm pretty good friends with them. So I'm excited to play against them, but it would have been a lot better -- it would have just been really cool to have a chance to play against him in a competitive situation."
Alex echoed his brother's feelings.
"I'm pretty mad about that," Alex said. "It's just unfortunate. We've always been talking about it, and we finally get to play each other and I'm not going to be able to play."
