Kasey Keller is enjoying first place in the English First Division. Millwall has led the league since the beginning of the season, giving Lions’ fans hope that this will be the year it moves up.
On several occasions during the past two years, Kasey Keller heard rumors he’d be going to the English Premier League via a transfer. Despite his fine play for First Division club Millwall, such a deal never came to completion, due to a high price tag placed on his services.
This season, though, he might make it to the top rung of English soccer not in the boardroom, but on the field. Millwall has taken the early lead atop the First Division with a string of steady, solid performances that has garnered nine wins and 32 points from its first 16 League games.
“For us, consistency really has been the key,” says Keller, who is in his fourth season as Millwall’s starter. “We haven’t won any League game by more than one goal.
“The last couple of years, we played well at home, but struggled on the road,” he says. “So far this season, we’re undefeated on the road, although we lost a couple of games at home early.”
A road game at Birmingham in early November sparked yet another black mark on the reputation of Millwall’s fans when fights broke out between rival supporters. “This time, it wasn’t our fault,” says Keller. “For once.”
Birmingham club officials seated Millwall fans, which included Keller’s wife Kristen, in a section below the home supporters instead of isolating them at one end. Such a situation triggered crowd trouble and a canceled match in Dublin last February when English fans pelted Irish fans sitting below them.
“You wouldn’t believe what the Birmingham fans were throwing down at the Millwall people,” says Keller. “They must have broken into an equipment room, because buckets and mops came flying out of the stands.”
Keller faced a lot of action last season
Keller believes Millwall can avoid the climbs and dives of the past two years, during which it had to unload several of its better players while suffering through the pains of incorporating younger talent to replace them.
“We had a lot of youth on the team last year, too much youth,” says Keller. “Both of our outside backs [Ricky Newman and Ben Thatcher] were 18, 19 years old. As a result, I got a lot of action.
“Now, I’m able to concentrate on cleaning up what gets through, which for a goalkeeper is the way you want it. I’m not paranoid about what this guy might do or what might go wrong.”
Speaking of what’s gone wrong, Keller is amused at pleas for inquests to uncover why English clubs stumbled so early in this season’s European competitions. Only Nottingham Forest survived the first two rounds of knockout play, and in the round-robin phase of the Champions’ League, Blackburn is being humiliated.
“I think it’s a major English overreaction,” says Keller. “The thing is, when English clubs were banned from Europe, teams like Liverpool and Everton were among the best in Europe, and that’s all people remember. The ban has taken its toll more than people thought.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I think teams like AC Milan would have beaten the best English teams the years they were banned, anyway. And this season, Liverpool killed Broendby and Manchester United absolutely crushed [Rotor Volgograd]. United could have won 10-2, that’s how lopsided it was.
“In those cases, the English teams were clearly better. But you still have to get it done, and they didn’t.”
Keller says he should be available for the Gold Cup and U.S. Cup tournaments, and is waiting to hear from Olympic coach Bruce Arena. “I played three games for them when Timo [Liekoski] was there,” he says. “I’d love to play in the Olympics.”
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney
English First Division
Nov. 11 in London
Millwall 2, Ipswich 1. Goals: Malkin (2), Witter (53); Mason (37).
Millwall — Keller, Newman, Bowry, Witter, Thatcher, Stevens, Taylor (Savage 89), Rae, Malkin, Van Blerk, Dixon (Fuchs 77). Ipswich — Forrest, Stockwell, Taricco, Wark, Mowbray, Williams, Milton, Tanner, Mathie (Gregory 77), Marshall, Mason.
Att.: 11,360.