Thank God for Keller

[ATPDC]

I feel that we are going to need a legendary preformance from Keller if we are to survive our grouping next Summer. For some reason I have waning confidence in our ability to match or exceed our '02 performance.

Am I alone here?

I have a feeling we are going to be dominated in the midfield. I just dont have the confidence that we are blossoming like I felt not 2 months ago.

Maybe I am still reeling from Azeteca. Perhaps England provided a moment of clarity. Last night didnt give me a whole lot to hold on to either.

In any event I hope that I see a performance that sells me again.

[Heathens '87]

Name the last time you saw anything close to our likely starting line-up on the pitch at the same time?! We've had to dig deep into our player pool during qualification, during friendlies, and now in this Gold Cup due to injuries and club issues. This is the marathon part of the schedule, and that we're doing so well is an indication of the increased quality of the player pool.

With rare glimpses have we seen the sprint group, the 23-man team that will go into the World Cup with 3 games in mind. That's it. 3 games decides your fate. 3 games to determine if you get to single elimination. You put together a very different roster for those situations, and the focus, game-planning, and intensity are at a completely different level.

Yes, Keller is a keeper who'll give the team a chance to win against darn near any team out there. Wonderful! But the Gold Cup is audition time for open slots on that 23-man roster, and many will be judged not good enough. Better to find that out now. Qualifiers are about getting results and getting points to advance. Do what you need to do, and with the length of the qualifiying campaign, you have to rely on many players. We're doing that quite successfully.

Arena is answering questions, and seeing strengths and weaknesses as we move toward next summer. Let's not freak out before he's even come to any sort of conclusion and starts to put his WC team together, because we've not seen it yet. All you see now are pieces of the eventual team and rosters built for other purposes.......

[mathiaslg]

Maybe I am still reeling from Azeteca. Perhaps England provided a moment of clarity. Last night didnt give me a whole lot to hold on to either.

In any event I hope that I see a performance that sells me again.

We should reserve such pessimism for when we see both the final squad for next summer and who they will be playing against (I don't want to jinx this, so I will once again say 'were we to qualify'").

The team hasn't played particularly well during the Gold Cup, but such is life. There has also been a ton of flux within the lineup itself.

Still, if we have a first choice 11 (and players can develop in a year), and if we attack in numbers and with speed, we should be fine.

[XaviusX]

I'm still the believer that GoalKeepers are like Fine Wine, they get better with time. Keller, as well as many other GK's in the world, has improved since I first saw him in Action in the mid-90's. He's a lot more wiser and agile on the pitch. I hope he does as well as, if not better than, Friedel did in '02.

[Liviu]

I hope he does as well as, if not better than, Friedel did in '02.

If I hadn't watched Keller's display in the last qualifier against Costa Rica I would've said that it's not possible. It's great to consider the possibility that Keller can exceed the performance of Friedel in '02. Friedel was awesome.