U.S. men

Friedel, Keller will both be absent from Confederations Cup.

By Gary Davidson
and Robert Wagman
SoccerTimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Thursday, May 15, 2003) -- The United States men will be without their top two goalkeepers for the Confederations Cup in France.

Neither Brad Friedel nor Kasey Keller will be called in by coach Bruce Arena for the tournament that runs from June 18-29. The Americans open with Turkey June 19 in St. Etienne and also play Brazil and Cameroon in Group B of the eight-nation event.

Friedel and Keller just completed grueling seasons in which they played virtually every minute for their clubs in the English Premier League as well as Cup competitions. Keller is about to undergo surgery to remove bone chips from both elbows.

"The surgery is preventative really," Keller said yesterday after playing in Tottenham Hotspur's 1-0 exhibition loss to D.C. United at RFK Stadium. "I have not been in any pain, except for maybe six weeks earlier this season when I hit a rock with my right elbow and knocked something lose. But it has not been hurting. . . What I don't want is to wake up next January and find my left elbow locked. So I will be getting them both cleaned out."

Keller's recovery time is estimated to be one-to-two weeks. "I'm sure I'll be ready to go by the Gold Cup and I hope to play," he said. "If things go well, I want to be on the golf course in a week or two, so I know I'll be ready by July."

The Gold Cup starts on July 12 with the U.S. playing Group C opponents El Salvador and Martinique at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. It is unclear whether Friedel, named the Premier League's best goalkeeper, will be called in for that event, but he has said he would like to take a considerable amount of time off after a arduous 2001-03 with two EPL seasons wrapped around his World Cup participation.

Keller played every minute of every game for Tottenham in 2002-03 after the previous season when he did not become the starter until the final seven matches. Counting the FA Cup and Worthington Cup, that amounted to 41 matches for Spurs. Playing behind a defense that crumbled in the final two months of the season, Keller finished with a 1.63 goals-against average in league games.

"Everybody was pretty happy with my form at (at the end of 2001-02)," Keller said. "I wanted to come back after the personal disappontment of (not playing in) the World Cup and just. . . make this position my own. I wanted everyone at Tottenham say, 'Yep, he's the No. 1 and there's no question. That was my goal and I achieved a little bit more than that. In my whole career, 11 years as a pro, I'd never played every minute of every game of a whole season. . . It was nice to know at 33 I could play every game of a season, every minute. I feel proud about that."

Spurs lost to D.C. United on an own goal. "It was one of those difficult things," said Keller who had moved quickly to his right for a shot by Hristo Stoitchkov, only to see the ball deflect off his defender and dribble behind him. "I would have easily had the ball, but defenders aren't going to just lift their foot and let it go from eight yards out. That was a shame to have it trickle off one of our own guys and trickle into our own net. Unfortunately, for the last couple weeks, we've been a little bit disappointing on that side of things. It's sort of the sum of how things have been going for us the last several weeks defensively."

Friedel played in 47 matches, including the FA, Worthington and UEFA Cups, finishing with a 1,05 goals-against in league and 1.09 in all competitions. The Bay Village, Ohio, native recorded 15 shutouts in the EPL and 17 overall.

Tim Howard of Major League Soccer's MetroStars appears to be the leading candidate to start in the U.S. goal in the Confederations Cup. His backup likely will come from an MLS pool that includes Nick Rimando of D.C. United, Zach Thornton of the Chicago Fire and Adin Brown of the New England Revolution.

Arena, who helped honor former U.S. captain John Harkes at last night's Tottenham-D.C. United exhibition, would not comment on who would play in goal in the Confederations Cup. "Who do you think?" he asked with a smile.

One player who hopes to play in the Confederations Cup is midfielder and captain Claudio Reyna who is recovering from a serious left knee injury. He will participate in the training camp prior to, but is not expected to play in the U.S. friendly against Wales May 26 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, Calif.