Soccer star Eric Wynalda was in Folsom Saturday and he wasn’t just signing autographs.

A 10-year member of the United States National Team, who played in three World Cups, was in town to give back to the sport of soccer, which has done so much for him. Joe Mihaljevic of Mihaljevic Soccer School invited Wynalda to the soccer field at Lakeside Church on Saturday to put on a striker clinic, demonstrating and teaching the skills and drills he’s learned, perfected and used throughout his soccer career as a forward.

“It’s hard to do in 90 minutes, but I want to teach them the little things,” Wynalda said after the first of two sessions of his clinic. “I can teach them quick ways to break bad habits and leave them with some thoughts that they can work on. I want them to leave here understanding that they are a better player than they think they are.

“Soccer is about getting great at what you’re good at, not about being average at everything.”

The striker clinic was put together in only two weeks, yet there were still about 40 soccer players who attended, a manageable number for Wynalda to work with as each player got some one-on-one instruction.

Don Murphy, who lives in Granite Bay, had his two daughters, Kate, 11, and Clare, 9, at the clinic. The girls have been playing soccer since they were 4 years old and currently play for Placer United.

“It’s rare to learn from a world class striker,” Murphy said. “His skills are very specialized and it’s good for the kids to learn them at an early age.”

Kate is a striker for her Placer United team, while Clare, as a midfielder, also certainly gets her chances to score as well. Both girls said they learned a lot and enjoyed the camp.

“It’s good to learn about shooting,” Kate said. “Eric said that you’ve got to find your own style and not to necessarily do it how the coach says.”

Clare added, “He said to not think about scoring too hard and just shoot, just react.”

Both girls said they would take the tips they learned from Wynalda and practice them and utilize them in games.

Steve Banks, the coach of the under-9 Shooting Stars recreational team in Folsom, brought five players from his team to the clinic.

“I think it’s fantastic that a player of Eric’s experience and talent is here in Folsom,” Banks said. “It’s great for the girls to meet and practice with him. I’ll take a couple of drills that he used to teach how to shoot balls correctly. One is that he had the girls hit four balls consecutively, instead of just one at a time. That way if the girls did something wrong, they could correct it immediately on the next kick.”

Mihaljevic , who on top of his school runs his Top Gun competitive soccer program, was thrilled to have Wynalda in Folsom and plans to have him up again in the future.

“It’s great to bring in high-profile players to Folsom,” Mihaljevic said. “Eric still has connections with the national team and hopefully down the road we could get the team to come here. Having players like Eric here is only going to make the Folsom and Sacramento area stronger in soccer.”

Though he only saw about 40 players at the clinic, Wynalda was impressed.

“I saw a lot of raw talent out here,” Wynalda said, “talent that those players probably don’t even know they have.”