None deeper at keeper
Marcus Hahnemann played his first match for the US team in 1994 against Trinidad and Tobago. The millennium arrived before he was called up again in 2003. The span between starts: eight years, five months, and 28 days.
``It was a ridiculous amount of time," Hahnemann observes. ``It just goes to show how solid our goalkeepers have been."
Waiting in line is part of the job description for anyone playing what always has been the deepest position on the national squad. Nearly a dozen keepers were in this year's pool, crammed together like restless lobsters in a holding tank. Seven have seen action and three of them played during qualifying for next month's World Cup.
``Our top three goalkeepers all rate with anybody on a World Cup roster," says coach Bruce Arena, himself a former US keeper.
Kasey Keller, who's clearly the No. 1 man, plays for Borussia Moenchengladbach in the German Bundesliga. Tim Howard is the backup for storied Manchester United in the English Premiership. Hahnemann backstopped Reading to promotion to the top league for the first time in the club's 135-year history. And there are more behind them laboring in Major League Soccer, including the Revolution's Matt Reis, who's an alternate on the Cup team.
``People in England ask, `How do you guys create so many goalkeepers?' " says the 33-year-old Hahnemann. ``They're amazed at how many we have."
The consensus explanation is that the US is a country whose most popular sports demand hand-eye coordination.
``To be a good goalkeeper, you have to be strong, you have to be agile, you need to have good reactions," says Howard, who played high school basketball in New Jersey and is a gifted dunker. ``As Americans, we grow up with all those things as athletes. We're not just rigid soccer players. We usually play football, baseball, basketball, and soccer."
Elsewhere in the world, athletes perform between the posts only under duress.
``It's shunned to be a goalkeeper in most countries," observes Arena. ``It's the last place you want to play."
In the US, though, it's a prestige position.
``You watch a hockey game, and as soon as it's over, everyone skates over to the goalie," says Hahnemann. ``It's a really respected position. When kids actually want to be a goalie, you have more to pick from. It's a numbers thing. The more you have, the better you're going to be. Simple as that."
The numbers, plus keepers' natural longevity, can make for a lengthy logjam. Two of the three US keepers in the 1990 Cup, Tony Meola and Keller, still are active, with Meola, 37, collecting his 100th cap vs. Jamaica last month.
``I've always been behind Kasey and [Brad] Friedel and Tony," Hahnemann says.
His stellar play with Reading earned him another call-up last year and a place on the US squad for Germany, where Hahnemann figures to be third man behind Keller and Howard. Such is life for the American goalie, who has to play superbly for the right to sit.
