By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor
Soccer America Magazine
Shelved by Bora Milutinovic, utilized by Steve Sampson and platooned by Bruce Arena, U.S. keeper Kasey Keller has outlasted dozens of national team players as well as several coaches to emerge as the undisputed No. 1 keeper.
Nearly every time Kasey Keller puts on the U.S. jersey, a gesture shared by he and an opponent serves as a testament to his longevity, sportsmanship and stature.
After grabbing a cross, smothering a low shot or collecting a ball, he'll accept a pat on the head, a slap of the palm or a fist bumped into his. Invariably, he smiles and nods prior to flinging or booting the ball back into play.
''I've known a lot of the guys in CONCACAF a long time, and we see them every time around in the qualifying and in the Gold Cup,'' says Keller, who turns 36 in November. ''That's one of the benefits, I guess, for hanging around as long as I have.''
The USA opened the Hexagonal last February in Port of Spain. Late in the match, a corner was driven to the far post. Trinidad & Tobago defender Marvin Andrews headed it into Keller's grasp, and before Andrews turned to reclaim his position he and the rival goalie exchanged pleasantries.
He makes the best of any situation,'' says defender Steve Cherundolo, who attended the University of Portland in part because of what Keller accomplished there and now plays against him in the Bundesliga. ''He's a part of the national team who's been there and has always been consistent, which is so hard to find in any team and is a big reason for the national team's success over the years.''
Over the years, Keller has been at the forefront of U.S. teams – and occasionally in the doghouse – while playing for clubs in England, Spain and Germany.
A dazzling display at the 1989 World Youth Championship, where he was second in the MVP voting, stamped Keller as a keeper for the future. He debuted for the national team in 1990 and played eight games but was a backup to Tony Meola, only two years older, at Italia '90.
Keller played only once for Milutinovic during the Serbian coach's five-year tenure (1991-95), in part because of a dispute over which brand of goalkeeper gloves he could wear. Milutinovic left Keller off the 1994 World Cup team, despite his holding down the starter's spot at English club Millwall, because Milutinovic didn't believe he'd accept a backup role.
ROTATING KEEPERS.
Keller and Brad Friedel chafed under Arena's policy of rotating goalkeepers prior to Friedel's retirement from the national team last winter. Both had threatened to quit in the years leading up to the 2002 World Cup, and Friedel actually did so on the team bus leaving Gillette Stadium after Keller blanked T&T, 2-0, in June 2001.
''I had planned to go on vacation after that game,'' Keller says. ''One of the guys turned to me and said, 'Well, I guess you're not going on vacation just yet.'''
Keller played 11 days later when the Americans lost to Mexico, 1-0, in Mexico City, the first of a three-game losing skid that cast qualification in doubt. Friedel came back for the next three games, losses to Honduras (3-2) and Costa Rica (2-0), and the 2-1 clinching win over Jamaica. ''If I'm not playing well, I don't deserve to keep the No. 1 jersey and I understand that,'' said Keller at the time. ''But I should lose that spot if I play well – that was never explained to me …''
For what he believed to be loyalty as well as solid play leading up to the 2002 World Cup, Keller thought he'd play in Korea. Arena had never deviated from of a risky policy of using both keepers to keep them sharp, although it was always hard to predict just when the switch would be made. He had proclaimed the USA had ''two No. 1 goalkeepers and I have confidence in both of them.''
But after Friedel and Co. upset Portugal, 3-2, in their World Cup opener, Arena stayed with a winning formula and Keller never got off the bench. Friedel saved two penalty kicks – only the second time that feat had been accomplished in the tournament's history – and rescued his teammates on a few other occasions with superb stops.
During the competition, a reporter lobbed Keller a beach-ball opportunity to salute the feats of his rival. Rather than diplomatically and emphatically swat a praise-laden answer, he responded, ''Well, you always think you can do better.''
He believes it. And next summer he'll most probably get the chance to prove it. Impressive showings during the Hexagonal, during which the U.S. qualified with three games left, and the starter's role at Borussia Moenchengladbach of the German Bundesliga should have him primed for a stellar showing next summer.
With the second Mexico game, in Columbus, tied, 0-0, late in a first half nearly devoid of action at his end of the field, Keller dived to his right and pushed away a bending free kick from Ramon Morales. Early in the second half, the Americans scored twice in rapid succession and their place in the 2006 World Cup was assured.
''That's what goalkeeping is all about – really having nothing to do at time and making sure you concentrate and getting ready to make the saves when you are called upon,'' said Keller after posting his 50th victory and 44th shutout in a U.S. uniform.
CONCENTRATION.
Cherundolo cites Keller's amazing ability to stay focused as perhaps the key to his longevity. ''He obviously takes care of himself physically,'' says Cherundolo of a 6-foot-2, 190-pound Keller, whose body is only a bit bulkier than the lanky frame he carried in his days at Portland and with the U.S. Olympic team in 1996.
''I've never played with a player who can concentrate like Kasey can. In every situation, every training, every game, he's able to concentrate for those 90 minutes in the game or that two-hour training session. His ability to focus while he's between the posts is uncanny, which is why I think he's had so much success.''
Keller let a shot squirm under his body for a goal in the 2-1 victory over T&T last February, but since then he's seldom erred. In many qualifiers this year, as well as at the Gold Cup, the Americans controlled the run of play yet also suffered problematic breakdowns.
In the U.S. squad for 3-0 qualifying victories against Costa Rica and Panama last June was New England goalkeeper Matt Reis, who relishes each opportunity he has to observe Keller up close. Reis leads an ambitious group of MLS keepers that is jockeying with Manchester United's Tim Howard and Reading's Marcus Hahnemann for whatever games Keller doesn't play.
''The main thing I got out of being around Kasey is how calm he is and how unflappable he looks when he plays,'' says Reis, who has a rather more boisterous style. ''He makes it look so simple, which is the highest compliment you can give. He's always in the right place and he rarely commits first. He's definitely got great reactions and his quickness getting up and down for the old man that he is, is really inspirational.''
'PEAR-SHAPED?'
During those qualifying wins over Costa Rica and Panama, Keller's excellent saves at critical times enabled the USA to post comfortable scorelines. Like the goals, his stops came in threes: a trio of fantastic saves against Costa Rica requiring elasticity in his limbs, and an incredible sequence in Panama City during which got up and down while repelling three close-range shots in rapid succession.
There had been references in a newspaper story that ran the morning of the Costa Rica game in Salt Lake City to a ''middle-aged, balding, pear-shaped U.S. goalkeeper.''
Goalkeepers often wear padded shorts that do appear to broaden their middle, somewhat, but Keller wasn't making any allowances for ignorance of modern goalkeeping attire.
''I got a lot of stick from the guys,'' recalls Keller. ''They were killing me. I very rarely read the press, so that morning they were asking, 'What the hell did you do to piss that guy off?' I didn't know what they were talking about.
''You can call me bald and middle-aged, because that's what I am, but pear-shaped? I've looked after myself pretty well for the last 14 years.''
During those years he's played for teams in England (Millwall, Leicester, Tottenham and Southampton), Spain (Rayo Vallecano) and now Germany (Moenchengladbach) while playing more than 400 first-team games.
''Some of my friends say I won't be able to call it a career until I play in Italy,'' laughs Keller, ''but unless something amazing happens I'm probably not going to make it.''
The irony of his dazzling saves in Salt Lake City didn't elude Keller. He'd been negotiating a move to MLS last winter once Tottenham had assured him he could leave if he wished. This move, unlike at least one he'd made in the past, didn't come down to the last minute, but the clock was ticking.
''I told Salt Lake from the beginning that my goal was to have my decision at the close of the winter transfer window,'' recalls Keller. ''I was looking for something very intriguing or I was looking to go home. Salt Lake put together the best offer they could, and I was considering it greatly and then the opportunity to come to a club of the size and status of Moenchengladbach and a new league and a new country and the country that's hosting the World Cup, it was too great an offer to turn down.''
Keller had arrived in Tottenham following the 2002 World Cup, after nearly taking up residence and employment in Istanbul with Besiktas. Looking back, he's happy in this regard he didn't emulate Friedel, who played one season for Galatasaray. But it was a near thing.
''I was at the Besiktas stadium watching their first league game of the season and I was talking on the phone with the chairman of Tottenham,'' laughs Keller. ''I ran to the airport in Istanbul.''
After Keller enjoyed an excellent first season at Spurs, the club began chasing England international Paul Robinson, who was then at Leeds. A loan deal during the winter window of 2003-04 fell through, but by the following June, Robinson joined Spurs, and Keller's club fortunes were in doubt. However, the U.S. goalkeeping controversy had already been defused.
Friedel had told Arena of his retirement from the national team, so Arena used Keller and Howard in the late summer and fall of 2004. When Howard found himself on the bench at Manchester United, that made Keller the undisputed No. 1 – if one he was playing.
Tottenham loaned Keller to Southampton for four games last January, and then he departed for Germany.
HOME IS A CASTLE.
He and his family live in a thousand-year-old castle sited between Duesseldorf and Moenchengladbach.
''It's a small castle, really, a mini-resort,'' he says. ''We live in the country. Our neighbor has 120 head of cattle. It's not the central London that we came from, it's more like the rural Leicester but closer to the facilities we've become used to having.
''We had a beautiful home in Madrid, we were very happy with our home in Leicester, out in the country. We've always taken our life in Europe as a kind of adventure and taken advantage of the situations.''
Keller figures to take advantage of regular competition in the Bundesliga as anticipation builds for the 2006 World Cup. The 12 stadiums to be used in the tournament are completed and Bundesliga crowds are expected to top all records, which may provide the German game and its professional clubs with enough revenues to truly compete for the world's top players.
''This year, Germany will beat all attendance records,'' says Keller, whose contract with Moenchengladbach expires in June. ''With the World Cup and the facilities and the product – they have a very good product here – if they get their TV revenues up higher, they can compete with the clubs in Spain and Italy and England.''
Keller won't speculate on what happens after the 2006 World Cup. MLS is always an option, as is the national team he has served for 15 years. Yet eventually, somebody will take over and probably only then will his contribution be recognized.
''Unfortunately, the way it is in most businesses is the way it is in soccer,'' says Cherundolo. ''You don't really appreciate someone until they're gone. That's going to be the case with Kasey, too. When he's gone – we have good goalkeepers coming up, obviously, in Tim Howard – you're not going to be able to replace Kasey's personality.''
(This article originally appeared in the September 26, 2005 issue of Soccer America Magazine.)