12/26 Friedel: Liverpool - Blackburn (R) 9:00AM EST Rovers look for a second major scalp within a week. Soccernet preview: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=365&cc=5901 BBC preview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/2575719.stm AFAIK, no free audio.
Friedel: Liverpool vs. Blackburn, 12/26 9am ET (R) BBB back at Anfield. Likely without David Dunn, but another former Scouser, David Thompson, back from suspension. Liverpool at relatively full strength.
Friedel diplomatic regarding his time at Anfield. http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N138212021226-1027.htm
According to the Everton announcer who gave an update on the Liverpool/Rovers match....the goal was a fluke lucky deflection that Brad could do nothing about...he said something like "That type of goal seems to be the only way you can beat the American these days"
I'm listening in on the Liverpool broadcast. Brad had a couple stunners in the first half. His defenders left him out to dry on the goal.
FT 1-1. The Reds are killing me 3 points out of a possible 24 over the last 8 games. Bring back Fowler . Friedel stones Owen in injury time to seal the win.
Friedel got more mentions from Soccernet. Sounds like he had another good game: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=54608&cc=3888
Man, watching Friedel highlights the other day. Jeebus! Just scary. He is awesome. The funny thing, I remember Friedel from ODP Regional camp when oh, we were about 15 or so. He was the second-string Regional goalie behind this keeper from Nebraska (yes, Nebraska) that was AWESOME, in part, because he played like a sweeper keeper (before the rule change of no backpasses), with great foot skills. But there was this Nebraska keeper, and like 5 rungs below him huddled the rest of the keepers. I wonder where that keeper is now--and no, wish I could remember his name, but remember his first name was like AJ or BJ something.
A friend of mine from Ohio, who doesn't give a damn about soccer, said he played with Friedel when he was a kid and that Brad actually quit the team for a while when the coach made him switch to GK!
well, that is actually a partical explaination for why he wasn't quite the stud yet at 15--he was probably brand new to the position! But man, Kahn has nothing on Friedel. I just got FSW a week ago, but has Friedel been playing like this ALL YEAR?!
Pretty much. It all started with his MOM performance in the League Cup Final, carried through the end of the EPL season as he was one of the major reason Rovers staved off relegation. We all saw his World Cup performance and he has been simply dominating so for this season. Rovers just lack the depth in quality they need to be a top 6 team. They'd be fighting relegation if not for Friedel
Brad played his early youth soccer for the Bay Firecrackers (Bay Village, Ohio). These kids were the class of their age in Ohio at the time. I think they went undefeated for several (4-5??) years and only gave up a handful (and remember, most hands only have 5 fingers) of goals during that time. There was 2-3 Youth regionals/nationals on that team although I don't think Brad was noticed nationally until his freshman year at UCLA. Brad split time between GK and forward. Biggest kid by a longshot but not the most athletic that I recall. Scored a buttload of goals though. An interesting note on how far US soccer has progressed.... I was talking to an old aquaintence after my U-10's indoor game last week and we both agree that my guys would have whooped the Firecrackers pretty good. We're an upper level team, but we have 5-6 better teams just in Cleveland alone. It was amazing how much we remembered between the two of us even though it was 20 years ago or so.
Friedel Plenty of praise for Brad in this SkySports match report: Cole's wonder goal extends Liverpool's slump