Keller to RSL? I doubt it …
By: Ian Rose | April 20th, 2007SI.com’s Jonah Freedman wrote a great piece a few days ago about Kasey Keller. The former Spurs keeper, arguably the most successful US player playing abroad in recent times, has apparently been calling around the MLS looking for a way back home. He’s always wanted to finish his career in the US, and he’s getting to that point (Keller is 37 - ever for a keeper, not young). Keller would like to be as close as possible to the Pacific Northwest, where his family lives, and the only MLS team within a 3-hour flight of his native Washington is, you guessed it, Real Salt Lake.
So, are Real jumping at this chance to sign the veteran? Not so much.
According to the article, Real management are “happy with” their two keepers, Nick Rimando and Chris Seitz. As much as I’ve been a bit disappointed in Rimando at times, I have to agree. We already dealt him out and re-acquired him once - to openly consider a bid on another starting keeper would take away his already shaky confidence in his place at Real. Rimando knows that Seitz is being developed as the future of the club, and if his performance against Kansas City on Wednesday is any indicator, the future may be quite soon, but I can’t see Real dealing him out again.
As much as I’d like to see it, I just can’t see a deal with Real and Keller happening. Between the keeper position not being our weakest (oh, for another veteran defender) and the salary cap issues, Keller will probably have to either look elsewhere or have to finish his career outside of the MLS. He could do worse than some of the Northwest USL teams, such as the Portland Timbers. It would be a less glamorous end to a great career, but it would allow him to be close to home and finish his career in the States, helping to develop American soccer.
Category: Team News
Tags: Chris Seitz, Kasey Keller, MLS, Nick Rimando, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, RSL, Team News, Transfer rumors, USLSubscribe
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Comments
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I completely agree. It would be great to see him in MLS but Real is not the best fit. How about Colorado? He is a big step up from Thorton and really that isn’t that much further away than RSL from the northwest.
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If we are basing Keller’s potential club solely on it’s proximate location to the Northwest, one of the Los Angeles clubs would make as much sense as Colorado. While Salt Lake City is only a 12 hour drive (about a 1 hour flight) from Seattle, Los Angeles sits at 17.5 hours away, or about 2.5 hours flight time. Denver is a 19 hour drive, or about 2.25 hours by air. So in regards to travel time, Los Angeles is 1.5 hours closer by car, and only 15 minutes further by air. As much as I would love to see Keller in Salt Lake, I don’t see it happening, and in a perfect world, MLS would expand to Seattle in 2008, with the new club making Keller the first player in team history!
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