This was the call Jon Kempin had hoped for. He just didn't think it would come this soon.
“I've been working hard every day, but I was a little surprised and obviously happy,” Sporting Kansas City's young Homegrown goalkeeper told MLSsoccer.com by phone after Friday's call-up to the US national team's January camp. “I thought the next step for me would be the Olympics – maybe a little mixture of the Olympics and the senior team – but to actually go into the senior team camp is ridiculous. It's awesome.”
Kempin had to check his voicemail to get official notice from head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who called while the ‘keeper was visiting a friend in the hospital.
“It's always been a dream to get called up,” said Kempin, one of two Kansas City players called up, along with center back and World Cup veteran Matt Besler. “Obviously, it's been amazing to play for the youth teams, but to get called to the highest level and potentially take that first step of following my dreams of playing in a World Cup and the Olympics, it's pretty amazing.”
The 21-year-old Kempin is no stranger to international competition, with appearances for the US Under-18 and Under-20 sides, but most of his competitive club experience has come on loans to Sporting's USL PRO affiliates.
He made his MLS debut last summer for Sporting, with four league appearances (and an MLS Save of the Week honor) and one in the CONCACAF Champions League after injuries to Eric Kronberg and Andy Gruenebaum, and hopes to contend for the No. 1 job in 2015 after Sporting declined options on Gruenebaum and Kronberg.
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The club brought in Chilean veteran Luis Marin and former league pool 'keeper Tim Melia in the offseason and already have assigned Marin the No. 1 jersey. Still, manager Peter Vermes has insisted that Kempin and Melia will have every chance to contend for the first-choice spot in training camp.
“That was kind of the meeting I had with Peter,” Kempin said. “It's somewhat wide-open, and basically the best player plays. So I'm really hoping that this will help prepare me for preseason. I haven't seen either of the other goalies too much, but I'm hoping that I can use this experience to kind of take the next step now and start playing.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
