We aren’t going to be happy when we see the supposed top American soccer players going to Fulham and basically start winning at the last minute.

I like Dempsey, but he can’t finish if his life depended on it.

McBride is old, he has to retire, he has had a great career.

Bocanegra is probably the worst player on the US roster now.

Keller….is 506.

Eddie Johnson is just pathetic, a royal bust.

Fulham have been driven into the ground thanks to making the team up of Northern Ireland and the US. I can’t see them staying in the Premiership much longer. It is indeed a great escape, but I don’t see a West Ham type of improvement.

I’d submit to you that with the exception of the World Cup in 2002, Keller has been a much steadier keeper for the US than Friedel. True that Friedel was a late bloomer but he lacked the confidence prior to moving to Blackburn when he was 29 or 30 to be serious keeper in deadly serious internationals which for some of us are more of a life and death matter than a given premier league match. Friedel’s inconsistency as mistakes were evident every time Keller couldn’t play for the national team, such as in some qualifiers in 1997 and again in a number of friendlies in 1999 and 2000. Actually for a long time I felt Jurgen Sommer late of QPR, the Crew and Bolton or Zach Thornton should have been the US #2 over the erratic Friedel. Again Friedel has been arguably better since 2002 or so, but over the course of their careers it is not even a contest. Many of us who have watched the national team for the better part of the last two decades would put Keller above anyone we’ve produced going back to our miracle run to the World Youth Championship semis in 1989 when Keller played for the University of Portland through his great goal keeping at Copa America in 1995, and his great saves in friendly wins over Brazil, Germany and Argentina in the late 1990s. Again from that point on maybe Friedel was better, but Keller had already written history when Friedel finally became a comparable keeper.

At the Brazil game last year what were your thoughts about Josh Wolff’s play? Given his positive history on the national team I think it would be unwise to write him off as a attcking option.

Kartik

The Premier League could be the best league in the world for finished products but the player development at least with Americans is below poor, which is either an indictment as to the low skill and quality of American players or the English development system or more likely both.

So no, MLS should not sign a deal with Fulham or any other English club. The league already has a marketing/player exchange deal with the Bundesliga that’s hardly taken effect yet. I want to see how that works first.