American goalkeeper Kasey Keller is third best keeper in the German Bundesliga according to ratings by Kicker Magazine, just one reason why the 36-year-old 2005 Honda U.S. Player of the Year has become a fan favorite at Borussia Moenchengladbach since joining the club a year ago.

Interview by Mike Woitalla

SOCCER AMERICA: After your first game for Borussia Moenchengladbach, you gave the team mascot, Juenter the Foal, a drink out of your water bottle. In November, after a 4-1 win over Kasierslautern, you body slammed the horse and it made you even more popular with the fans …

KASEY KELLER: [laughs] It was just something that came out of the blue. The fans were going crazy. I was just going to tackle him, and then I picked him up and he was really light, so I carried him over to the crowd and slammed him. It was funny.

There's a misconception that the Germans don't like to enjoy themselves. Anybody who's ever been to an Octoberfest or seen our fans after we win a home game can attest to the fact that they definitely like to enjoy themselves.

I've never seen any atmosphere in any of the countries, with any of the teams that I've played for or against that compares to the post-game celebrations at Gladbach when things are going well.รก You get kind of caught up in the moment and Juenter was there for the taking.

Juenter's cool. He told me as long as we keep winning, I can keep slamming him.

SA: German fans don't often bestow nicknames on players, especially ones that aren't just variations of their names, but the Gladbach fans have dubbed you ''The Wall.'' Looks like you're quite a hit …

KK: A German friend of mine back home explained to me that Germans are generally standoffish and that it takes a while to get accepted, if ever. There's a lot of little tests along the way, but I've become on honorary German.

I'm very happy. I like the nickname. As a goalkeeper it's a pretty significant nickname. It's an honor.

SA: On Friday, the World Cup draw takes place and the you'll learn who the USA's opponents will be. Which opponents would you prefer to face?

KK: Would we like to have a Japan or Saudi Arabia in our group? Sure, you look on paper and feel this is a team we can beat, but you still have to do it. You can have a game like we did against Iran in 1998, when we hit the post five times and they come down and score on counterattack [in the 2-1 U.S. loss]. Sometimes funny things happen.

I think it just depends. Would you rather have Poland or Holland? That kind of speaks for itself. The scary part is you don't know who's going to peak at right time. Look at France at the last World Cup [2002]. You would have been thinking before, ''Look at the firepower we're playing against, we could get stomped 4-0'' — and they don't score in the whole tournament.

We drew a very strong Portugal in 2002, but they basically had the array of internal problems that we had in 1998, and we beat them [3-2].

It's all about catching the right team at the right time. Unless you're one of the main superpowers, you're pretty much hoping you peak at the right time and you catch a team that doesn't.