SOCCER / GRAHAME L. JONES : Nine Hours Later, Keller’s Wall Stands
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Ask U.S. national team goalkeeper Kasey Keller about his shutout streak and he gets what can only be described as a blank look on his face.
Five World Cup ’98 qualifying games without allowing a goal. So what? An astonishing 551 consecutive
minutes without having to retrieve the ball from the back of his own net. Hey, it’s no big deal.
But if Keller keeps that streak going for 43 more minutes today against Costa Rica in the bedlam of Ricardo Saprissa Stadium, he will earn a place in the U.S. Soccer record book.
Mark Dodd, of Major League Soccer’s Dallas Burn, holds the record with 594 consecutive scoreless minutes set between 1988-92. But that was not in World Cup qualifying, where the intensity and the pressure are much higher.
Still, Keller shrugs and refuses to accept that he is accomplishing anything unusual, even though the last goal he gave up in U.S. colors was more than 14 months ago, on Jan. 18, 1996.
That was against Brazil at the Coliseum in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and even then it was an own goal accidentally deflected past Keller by U.S. defender Marcelo Balboa.
But Keller is not counting the minutes. After shutting out Canada, 3-0, at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto last Sunday, he dismissed any praise as irrelevant.
“The result is all that matters,” he said. “If I knew they would score 10 goals but we were going to score 11, I would very happily have thrown 10 in the net. I have no problem conceding goals if I know we’re going to score them.
“It’s a team game. I’m proud with the way we’re playing, and that’s all that really matters.”
Keller, whose goalkeeping for Leicester City in the English Premier League this season has carried the club all the way to the League Cup Final against Middlesbrough on April 6 at Wembley Stadium, said he had real soccer role model as a youngster growing up in Olympia, Washington.
“As a goalkeeper, my role model was Tony Dorsett, the running back for the Cowboys,” he said. “I didn’t have any soccer role models to watch. There were some [Seattle] Sounders guys who were around and I tried to see some games from Europe here and there, but I didn’t really have the opportunity to see someone day in and day out to really build a role model.”
Modest almost to a fault, Keller and his backup, Brad Friedel, are now the role models for the next generation of American keepers.
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
The only U.S. loss so far in qualifying play for France ’98 came against Costa Rica in the same stadium where today’s game will be played.
That was a 2-1 defeat Dec. 1 in a match that saw the American players and coaches pelted with debris, spat upon and verbally abused by the Costa Rican fans. With Keller injured, Friedel was a favorite target.
The crowd behavior led to a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs by FIFA against the Costa Rican soccer federation and a warning that any further trouble could see the team’s qualifying games moved to a neutral country.
Steve Sampson, the U.S. coach, said he did not expect any problems with the fans today and suggested that his own players are motivated by what occurred the last time.
“I really think this team is excited about playing in this stadium, as crazy as that sounds,” he said. “I think they thrive on the atmosphere. I think they very much look forward to erasing the [Dec. 1] result and, at the very least, the way that we played in that game.
“I don’t think this team fears anybody. They respect the fact that the Costa Ricans have to come out to win. They respect the fact that the fans are going to support their team to the fullest.
“We know there was heightened security for the Mexico match [a 0-0 tie in Costa Rica last Sunday]. We know there was only one bottle thrown onto the field, which is a great departure from our game. We know that the local press, both electronic and written, has pleaded with the fans to behave themselves because Costa Rica could lose its home field advantage and have to play at a neutral site.
“The bottom line is, if I don’t think our players are protected going out onto that field, I won’t allow our team to come out of the locker room. I should have done that the last time.”
FRUSTRATING TIME
Costa Rica has changed coaches since that last game against the United States, replacing easy-going Brazilian Valdeir “Budu” Vieira with hard-nosed Argentine Horacio Cordero.
Two weeks ago, Cordero imposed a sex ban on his players, telling them to conserve their energy for the matches against Mexico and the United States.
That led to the predictable slew of jokes, including one from Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.”
Sampson was asked if the U.S. might contemplate a similar sex ban:
“We’ve actually gone the opposite way,” the coach joked. “We’re insisting upon it.”
TRAVELING LIGHT
U.S. Soccer is keeping track of the mileage being racked up by its European-based players in their constant trans-Atlantic trips to meet their club and national team commitments.
The leader over the past 30 days has been defender Thomas Dooley with 28,819 miles flown, closely followed by defender Eddie Pope (26,428) and forward Ernie Stewart (22,758).
Pope’s total included a trip to Hong Kong with D.C. United, but Dooley’s itinerary in the last week alone has been astonishing.
After the U.S. victory over Canada on Sunday afternoon, he and U.S. teammate David Wagner flew from San Francisco to Los Angeles, changed planes and flew to London, changed planes again and flew to Valencia, Spain. There, they played for their German club team, Schalke 04, against Valencia in a European cup game Tuesday night, then flew to Miami on Wednesday to rejoin the U.S. team. On Thursday, they flew from Miami to Costa Rica. After today’s game, they will fly back to Germany.
FAMILIAR FOE
The United States will be without Stewart today after he picked up his second yellow card in the Canada game. The Galaxy’s Cobi Jones probably will start in his place.
Sampson is expected to employ a more defensive formation in the hope of containing offensive threats of Costa Rica’s Paulo Wanchope and Hernan Medford.
Wanchope, who scored against the United States in the last game and collected a hat trick in a 5-0 victory over Cameroon two weeks ago, recently was signed by Derby County in the English Premier League.
That means he soon will be playing against Keller in England and perhaps learning just what it is like to be shut out.
