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Friedel retires from United States national team

B

bwidell

Youth Team
MIAMI (AP) - United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel is retiring from international soccer, leaving Kasey Keller as the favorite to be in goal through the 2006 World Cup finals.

"I would like to spend my time away from my club team with my family," Friedel said during a conference call Monday. "The second reason is based on prolonging my club career, because I have picked up, albeit slight, muscular injuries recently.

"When I was traveling around, I was feeling worn down. I haven't felt worn down in quite some time, and I think a lot of that is attributed to the fact that I'm not flying everywhere and playing in high-level, competitive games."

The 33-year-old Friedel, the starter for Blackburn in England, beat out Keller for the starting job at the 2002 World Cup finals, where the United States advanced to the quarterfinals, its best showing since 1930. He played a huge part, stopping penalty kicks against South Korea and Poland.

"Certainly his performance in the 2002 World Cup was a huge factor in our success," said United States coach Bruce Arena, who twice tried to talk Friedel out of his decision in the last two months or so.

Friedel has played just once for the United States since the World Cup, in a friendly match at Poland in March.

Friedel, who made his international debut in 1992, played in the last three World Cups and finishes with 24 shutouts in 82 appearances. He was voted the top goalkeeper in the Premier League by fellow players at the end of the 2002-3 season.

In Cleveland to announce the launch of his soccer academy, Friedel said he wants to extend his contract with Blackburn, which has 18 months left. His success and that of the team at the 2002 World Cup made his decision easier.

"After the '98 World Cup, I think the world saw us as again a third-world footballing nation," he said. "After the 2002 World Cup, they obviously didn't, and you can see all the talented players going to a lot of very, very good clubs once again."
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This leaves Joe Cannon (Colorado), Marcus Hahnemann (Reading, England), and Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany) as the US keepers.. Thoughts?
 
R

Run DMB

MVP
Well Friedel's only played one game for the US since 2002, so this doesn't exactly come as a shock. IMO, he's definitely the best keeper the US has ever produced.
 
B

bwidell

Youth Team
What happened to Tim Howard? I've been a bit out of the loop until I got FSW/FSC(now) a couple months ago.
 
S

sky.

Reserve Team
He was amazing in WC2002, although the Korean penalty was a bit weak, he made some really spectacular saves in matches and penalties.

Although Howard hasn't played much this season he should still be on that list.
 
P

peruytu

Reserve Team
Great keeper, he will be missed, but not because we need him, we have tons of GKs as good or better then him now, but because of the good games he gave our USNT. Thanks Friedel.
 
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