Photo by Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports
By MATT STYPULKOSKI
Kasey Keller, Sigi Schmid and Glenn ‘Mooch’ Myernick have all been immortalized in U.S. Soccer lore.
The trio were elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, U.S. Soccer announced on Wednesday. Details of the induction ceremony have not yet been made available.
As a player, Keller represented the U.S. in 102 games between 1990 and 2007 and participated in four World Cups. He also finished National Team career with 47 shutouts, which still tops the all-time list. As a result, he was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot.
“It’s a great honor,” Keller said of being elected. “You look at some of the guys that have been elected before; it’s not an easy process. It’s not like it’s an open-door policy. It’s cool to be voted in.”
Schmid was elected from the Builders Ballot for his 35 years of service as a coach at various levels in the U.S.
The current Seattle Sounders head coach is the winningest coach in MLS history with more than 200 victories and has twice earned the league’s Coach of the Year honors. In addition to his time in MLS, he has also spent time coaching the UCLA Bruins, where he played, and led the U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team during two different stints.
Myernick was voted into the Hall of Fame posthumously following his death on Oct. 5, 2006, at 51 years old.
During his time on the U.S. Soccer scene, Myernick earned 10 caps for the USMNT between 1977-79 and was an assistant coach on the 2002 and 2006 World Cup squads. He also spent time at every youth level, coaching the U-17s, U-20s and U-23s.
In addition, Myernick spent four years in MLS at the head of the Colorado Rapids and guided the club to its first MLS Cup final in 1997, his first season at the helm.
Rigby did have great hair and the guy still looks like he is about 35 years old.
Guzan is solid, no doubt. Howard’s uncanny athletic ability will continue to get him the #1 position. He has some flaws in his game but saying that in America is almost tantamount to treason so I won’t go there.
We should be developing the best keepers in the world but our training (and other countries as well) entails too many gimmicks and BS.
I will be curious to see how Stephan and Horvath develop being in Europe and away from all of this GK nonsense.
GW
Good call. The last World Cup may have bumped Howard slightly above KK for me. There are still some things in Howard’s game that bug me. Arena picked Friedel for one reason only….he was better with his feet and that criteria was never the most important with Bruce. They were that close.
Arnie Mausser! My god I have not heard that name since I was listening to 8 track tapes!! lol
If we are going with Old School American keepers I have to say Bobby Rigby.
Best ever in NASL, may have been Hubert Berkenmeier.
Birkenmeier, yes absolutely.
Rigby, not so much.sorry, great hair though. Maybe he should have been bald.
I think Mausser may have had the best tools.
I never felt comfortable with Howard after KK retired ( I think he pushed Timmy to be better) and I thought Timmy was awful in 2010 .
But when Guzan heated up at Villa and Timmy’s job seemed in jeopardy at Everton , Howard came back with his best stuff and is now playing about as well as he ever has. I still rate KK better though. Still, imagine if Timmy lasts until 2018? I love Guzan though.
Thank you John. I am not a rude person but I guess my passion for wanting to see us be a great soccer nation gets the best of me. I have heard the spin doctors (and boy do we have 2 great ones running a campaign now) for too long.
You are right about the USDA. The guy in charge is a bright young coach that I am amazed US Soccer has held on to. I have worked with him a lot and he should be doing more coaching than data processing.
A big problem with the USDA is so many teams survive from pay to play that they must have really big rosters. This prevents kids from playing up and out of their comfort zone. I have seen kids come back from playing in international friendlies and be put on the u16 roster for the USDA showcase. They usually can play these games with blindfolds on.
The other problem with the USDA is mediocre coaching. We will never get better until the best coaches are coaching our best players. This is the way the real soccer nations do it.
Nice talking soccer with you.
Sepp,
Keller and Freidel have been around so long I think people take them for granted. I have been a Keller fan since he had long hair but in truth I don’t envy Arena having to choose between the two for 2002.
The best American keeper off all time for me is a tie with those two.
However, I often wonder how Arnie Mausser would have done if he had come on the scene ten or fifteen years later than he did.
Sepp-although a bit rude, I’m loving the posts. Keep sharing your knowledge here.
For me the problem is greater than simply the academy system (which is so new here that I’m not sure if we can fault it). One of the biggest problems is that MLS clubs do not have any incentive to develop and export talent (the money made from selling a player abroad cannot be reinvested in the squad due to the salary cap). MLS managers do not have their teams ever play for anything more than the result, unlike their counterparts in other countries, who tailor their training and tactics towards developing individual talent (for the possibility of selling these players for big transfer fees). Thus we see talent like Luis Gil get completely wasted (RSL invariably used a 4-4-2 diamond that had little use for him and threw him on the wing). And because all American coaches grew up playing in environments where the result was all that mattered, they don’t know to coach any other way. Sometimes our budding academy system is able to develop a prodigy but his career is then derailed by MLS coaches whose only concern is winning the game next week.
With no due respect I have read your smug, pompous posts over again.
Why do you take the wording (like train wreck) literally? I don’t equate success as a soccer nation strictly by results in a World Cup.
*We do not DEVELOP international players for the most part, we take them from other nations
*We should be DEVELOPING players who can play in top leagues internationally but we don’t
*Our country has a poor coaching education system. We have ONE full time coaching education director
*We do not have a youth club that is a five star rated club. We have only a few that are four star rated in the ENTIRE COUNTRY.
*When surveyed our MLS USDA clubs are rated lower than many non MLS clubs
We do not have a plan for YOUTH technical development. We have that piece of crap given to us by imposter Javier Perez….want me to go into details, I will.
*We have no youth development plan even close to what a mediocre international pro club has.
Ever been to a youth club in Germany, MR. Know it all? I spent months observing them. If you have ever witnessed what they do with their youth you would probably shut your mouth
*We have a very poor plan for taking good potential pros who are in their teens and putting them into proper environments
*We lack coaches who can truly develop pro players in our youth scheme
Our MLS academies are very, very average
*The closest things we have to professional youth development is the USDA and US Residency program. Professionl all I can say is SIGH
I have been around all of you JK Kool Aid drinking soccer moms for too long to make sense that the wealthiest nation on earth should do better and that leadership should come from Jurgen the $2.5 million man and Sunil Gulti Good night. I can’t waste my fingers on a smug, know it all like you
You make plenty of good points but I’m sure exactly where you get the idea that we have the money for a lot of this…. if you’ve looked at USSF’s financials, the revenue is about $75 million, which is really extremely small in the global context and has to cover everything that US Soccer does, including women’s soccer, etc…. We might be a rich country, but to suggest that the USSF is rich is simply incorrect.
In truth, the money will have to increase considerably to get to the level you (correctly) describe, and we’ll probably have to see greater investment from MLS for our youngsters to have the kinds of development opportunities they’d have in Europe. This is why Klinsmann is so forthright about encouraging young players to go to Europe, and take advantage of the infrastructure that is already in place. Of course this is not preferable to having our own, but it can’t be built overnight, either. Not with the funding we have, anyway.
+ 1
Mooch was horrible with the Rapids and failed with under 23’s.
Kosh, I do take it personally just like I take that totally ignorant post from Scott e Dio93 personally
I knew Mooch Myernick. He bled for the game in this country and would be more upset than I am about the lack of progress what we have shown.
He took the Rapids to the MLS final and was the best American player of his era
Not only that, he was a fine man
Rest in peace Mooch and congratulations. He deservers a lot more respect than what that poster above started
Kosh, read my post below. This is the United States. We have more people making money and expending energy on this game but our lack of vision is shocking. I guess that I am getting to be another person who bleeds for the game and cannot believe how low our standards of excellence are
Please tell me what we are doing to develop talent? Talent is developed in the Golden Ages between ages 6-15. We don’t even know how many players to have on the field for those ages.
Sepp,
It’s not that we have low standards it’s that we understand the reality of the state of our sport in the US sports landscape. I too want us to start producing super stars and I think it’s coming. I get your frustration, for a guy who’s been involved in the game for this long in the US. But, if you are looking at things realistically, you cannot ignore the progress made in just the short time since the 1994 WC.
Yes we are the US and are a rich country and all but soccer still ranks well behind many sports here. So where do you think the money and talent is going?
You compare us, MLS, to established leagues and systems that have been around much, much longer. Personally, I think that’s a compliment because just 10 years ago no one was thinking of MLS and the big teams in terms of serious comparison. Imagine what things will be like in another 10 years.
Sepp, you know your stuff – as you have clearly demonstrated. But to dismiss the rest of us with name calling because we are balancing patience with reality as we know it is unfair. We want the same thing as you but we also admit that it’s not going to happen over night. We can compare ourselves to Germany, England and whoever we like but this will take time here in the US. The good thing is there is growth. I am sure you can see that.
You are a good man Kosh. Sorry for being a hothead
I will be back to you with a response soon. The post below was not meant for you
No worries, Sepp. I totally understand the frustration, it comes from passion for the game and the hunger for our program and country to succeed and live up to its full potential. I strongly feel like we’re getting there, even though it seems like two step forward and ten back right now.
Keep up the good work in supporting, growing and promoting the game in our country, sir.
Kosh
You are probably younger than me so you have more optimism. I have heard all of the BS stories about winning the World Cup in 2010 because we took a group of 40 kids to Disneyland (aka IMG Academy) where they did not get challenged because there was no one older and better to challenge them. How’d that work out?
My frustration comes from the painful reality that we should at least be better than we were in 2002. You can say that we are but it would only be a marginal improvement
*We need to start technical development at a very early age. We are such a big nation that this must be a US Soccer supported program and my ideas would be too long for a SBI post. If you would like, please send me your email and I will give you my ideas on this topic
*We need to have a lot more Coaching education directors and we need to unite both US Soccer Coaching education and the NSCAA, both of whiom are outdated
*We need to INVEST money (and SG has it) in player development starting as early as 10. We will start to make progres (the kind that you and I want) when our best American coaches are coaching our best players. I can also email you a plan that was shown to US Soccer by some astute US coaches and rejected.
To get our best coaches requires paying them. My frustration comes from how much money we do not invest in coaching. We pay USDA TAs about the same as a 3rd year public school teacher makes. And the product is sub standard.
I appreciate your respect for the hard work myself and many, many others have done over a long period of time.
There’s millions of players and coaches that bleed for sport, but very few were good for HOF.
Mooch miss a game for ballet…my native Uruguay that’s no bleeding for sport.
Let me tell you about the giant paint brush you knucklehead.
My standards are exactly what you described, LOFTY. Your response is nothing more than that of a smart ass soccer mom.
I have worked on or behind the scenes for the National team program for over 20 years. Coached and have a personal relationship with at least 15 guys who have full team caps, over 100 guys who played in MLS. I know what goes on and I want to say that in the most modest way that I can.
You bet your ass my standards our lofty because I have listened to blowhard optimists like you for the last 40 years.
Stick with what you know about bro because what we have now is a train wreck in comparison to what we COULD and SHOULD have 25 years after qualifying for the World Cup.
With all due respect to your experience, considering what and where the US was in 1990, we have made respectable progress. When the 1990 team went to the WC, not one player played professionally. It was mostly a bunch of college students.To call the present program a train wreck has to be a vast over statement. Over the past 2 World Cups the US has a better cumulative record than a lot of higher profile teams such as England and Italy. When I see someone making a statement like this which is patently ridiculous and historically inaccurate I think that person has lost all credibility and can be ignored.
Knuckle head? Soccer Mom? I’ll chalk those up to just bad form, I hope.
Your tirade, resume and lofty standards aside, the reality is that while we had failed to do our homework – as you tried to eloquently suggest in your…response – my point stands, we are doing something to develop talent. Are we behind the eight ball? Sure. I. Am sure that we can at least agree on that. But your absolute position of we are not doing anything because we don’t meet your standards (and I am sure we must all strive to meet them, with you having invented soccer and all) is still nonsense – and I don’t mean that in an insulting way. I am not sure why you are taking this difference of opinion so personally, but your resume does not make you right.
Actually, you two make good points. I painted with a broad brush and that was wrong to minimize the efforts of those who helped these guys along.
What I really want to emphasize is the obsolete methods we have for developing keepers and the frustration I have that we have no plan in place for developing players.
So to the two of you, thanks for bringing me back a little but if you think we have a plan for developing keepers and/or outfield players you are so wrong.
Sepp, of course we have a plan. Is it La Masia? No, well not yet at least. But we have something. You gotta start somewhere and that’s where we are – at the beginning of taking this development stuff much more seriously now. You see it in MLS and it alliance with USL. You see it the way JK and the team are working things on the National Team side. While this may not satisfy your lofty standards it does not necessarily mean that, and I quote you “we have no plan in place for developing players.”
You might want to put that giant paint brush down for the day, buddy.
Gary Page, I agree with your first post. I also agree with your last sentence that we have been blessed with great GKs.
The only thing I would add is that we really have done nothing to really develop these great keepers, we pretty much got lucky and found 3 superb athletes. If there was one GK developed it may have been Kasey when he was a U of P
Pont being, we have no plan for developing kepers just like we have no plan for developing players.
Sepp that was a very “Sepp” thing to say….
all three of the GKs in the discussion above have very, very different skill sets so to make a blanket statement that “we pretty much got lucky and found 3 superb athletes” is nonsense, furthered by your comment that we have done nothing to develop them. are you saying they are/were the same GK at the end of their career as they were when they began their career? If so, quote naive.
These players grew and developed every step of the way. Having personally trained with/against one of these GKs while we were college-aged, I know firsthand the development that these have gone through.
Good Grief.
I hate when guys say this cr@p. There were many, many American guys who worked their tails off and made these guys better. And Sepp, with unknown qualification and accomplishments, sits down on a computer and slaps them in the face.
Why ? So he can whine about what others are doing.
So who is the all time best US goalkeeper? As between Keller and Friedel, I think Friedel is more athletic, but Keller was better in positioning and judgment. He seemed to have a better sense of when to come out of his goal and when to stay back. Because of that I think he handled crosses better. As between Keller and Howard, this, too, is a close call. Before the Belgium game I would have said clearly Keller. Howard was so great there and then that it was a performance for the ages. Still, looking at their body of work, I think Keller was a little more consistent. Maybe it’s my faulty memory, but I think Howard has had some poor performances and I can’t recall Keller having any poor performances. Of course I haven’t seen all the games of both players, but my sense is Keller is a little more consistent than Howard. I am including club performances in my evaluation and Keller has had more varied and widespread experience than Howard.. The US has been lucky to be blessed with such great GK’s.
In thinking about it some more, I do remember a Sounders game near the end of his career where Keller did not have a good game, but he was near 40 then.
Well his final (reg season) Sounder’s game against San Jose was one of the best things I have seen in sports, so that counters his bad game.
For his entire Sounders career, Keller had a UTI.
So there’s that.
Keller was the better shot stopper but Friedel had better distribution skills. Friedel was very good at stopping PK’s as well. IMHO Keller was the one you wanted between the posts back then as we always gave up a lot of shots. Both were fantastic keepers though.
I will always remember staying up very late on a work night to watch Keller’s shutout win over Brazil. Sleepy but happy the next day at work!
Yes, the handshake in the middle of the game from Romario to Keller was priceless. Has a greater show of respect ever been given to an American player?
Keller v. Friedel is an interesting debate. Keller played in Germany, England and Spain. Friedel was a rock for Blackburn for a number of years in the EPL and (almost) set a record for most consecutive appearances.
As for the USMNT, both were fantastic. Keller was the primary keeper once Meola was passed by, but Friedel was our stopper in Japan/SK in 2002.
I have a preference for Keller – but that’s just it, a preference. I’d accept an argument either way
But that game against Brazil… man, that may have been the greatest game anyone ever had in a US shirt.
Like the discussion.
Why do you have to pick Keller over Friedel or vice versa? They’re both excellent.
There IS a statistical anomaly, however. Meola (1994), Friedel (2002), and Howard (2010 and 2014) each have won a World Cup game. Keller (1998 and 2006) was between the posts during the US’s worst World Cups (in the post-1990 era), and the US never won a World Cup match with him in goal.
The WC’s you mentioned were not good ones for sure. 1998 was the Harkes/Sampson debacle (I know the story) and it kicked the team into low gear. 2006 was really bad luck and key players (Reyna) had bad games. It happens but neither was Keller’s fault. It is something that would come to the forefront though for most people and you make a good point.
Well deserved all around.
All 3 are deserving but I am scratching my head as to why Tiffany Milbret wasn’t selected. I thought she would be a slam dunk 1st ballot inductee.