Keller can't resist when US calls

It isn't as if the man needed another Gold Cup T-shirt. Kasey Keller has played in enough matches (18) in this biennial continental championship over the last decade that they should name a crossbar after him. And it isn't as if he needs any more international caps. At 83 and counting, he already has more than every previous US goalkeeper except Tony Meola.

But there are three reasons Keller will be guarding the line again tomorrow afternoon at Gillette Stadium when his teammates take on Jamaica in the Gold Cup quarterfinals.

Because the first two group matches were in Seattle, near where Keller grew up. ''When I heard that," he said, ''the decision was pretty much made."

Because it beats running Alpine training camp gassers with his Borussia Moenchengladbach teammates. ''I do my best to get out of preseason," he conceded.

And because if Keller didn't answer the call to suit up this month, another eager volunteer would have happily grabbed the chance to make a mark during a pre-World Cup summer. ''Why give somebody else an opportunity?"

One thing Keller has learned over 15 years of his on-and-off tenure with the national team is that there are 10 field players and one keeper. In his specialized line of work, you either play or you watch.

After watching two World Cups from the bench and being passed over for another, Keller doesn't need to gather any more dust. ''I was told many years ago, when they ask you, you might as well play," he said. ''Because there'll be times when they won't be asking you."

The federation has been asking frequently this year and Keller has been answering, playing in eight of 11 matches. So far, he's started all five in the final round of Cup qualifying (posting three shutouts) and likely will start the final five, including the Labor Day weekend showdown with archrival Mexico in Columbus that could put the Yanks into the quadrennial Big Dance for the fifth straight time.

In the Gold Cup, where Keller is 13-3-2 with 12 shutouts across five tournaments, he blanked Canada and Costa Rica in group play, earning Man of the Match honors both times. ''Does he have to make any saves to win these things?" cracked coach Bruce Arena, after Keller needed to make only two stops in Tuesday's scoreless draw with the Ticos.

Clean sheets, as shutouts are called in soccer, are as common as not for Keller, who's managed 41 in his 79 international starts. Not that Keller needs any validation by now. But his restoration as the squad's unquestioned No. 1 keeper has done much to erase the sour taste he had after the last World Cup, where he watched Brad Friedel backstop the Americans to the quarterfinals, their best showing in more than 70 years.

Keller, who'd started most of the qualifying matches, might have gotten the nod but for an elbow injury during the week before the opener. The US stunned Portugal (and the rest of the planet) and kept advancing and Friedel kept the job.

''I was disappointed with the way things transpired and Bruce knew that," said Keller. ''The first thing he said after the tournament was that the biggest disappointment he had was in my not being on the field at some point."

Keller could have popped off, as several of his non-playing teammates did after the three-and-out bust in 1998, but chose to hold his tongue. ''Lots of times you want to say something, but it's not worth it," he said. ''If I would have shot my mouth off, it would have been difficult to come back."

Keller returned in 2003, and even before Friedel retired from the squad this year, he was undisputably the man again, as he was with Tottenham Hotspur, where he played every minute for two full seasons before being displaced by last season by Paul Robinson, England's first-choice keeper.

This year, after Keller tired of sitting with Spurs, he had a choice: join Major League Soccer (specifically Real Salt Lake) or hook up with Borussia Moenchengladbach, a once-dominant club that needed a Mr. Clean Sheet to prevent the humiliation (and fiscal disaster) of relegation.

Keller went with Gladbach (''It was too appealing to pass up") and delivered the goods. It doesn't hurt that he's now intimate with the dimensions of every major stadium in Deutschland.