TUKWILA, Wash. – A son kicks the ball to his father on a warm summer night. The father traps the ball deftly and plays it back to the son.
Kasey Keller believes that’s where soccer in this country is headed.
In a wide-ranging press conference held Friday to announce his contract extension, the former US national team goalkeeper laid out his vision of the future of soccer in America. He believes that the work now being done can build a future where parents and children communicate with one another through the common language of soccer.
Sitting beside Seattle Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer, Keller added some perspective to the record crowds that have welcomed the arrival of Major League Soccer in Seattle and around the country.
[inline_node:321599]"We’re the first group that grew up truly playing the sport," Keller said. "My kids — and Adrian’s future kids — we can now finally come and take our kids out into the yard and play the game. My father couldn’t do that.
“It was a case where they didn’t grow up with the game. It was very difficult for my dad to take me to a Sounders game in the ‘80s, and have him jump and cheer because of a goal and have me tap him on the shoulder and say, ‘Dad, that was offside. Sit down.’
“It’s that generation that grew up playing the game and wanting to watch the game and wanting to be a part of the game are now embracing that with their children. That’s going to be a huge thing for this sport over the next 10 to 20 years."
Notebook
Adrian Hanauer confirmed that the Sounders are “very, very cap-constrained” following the signing of Keller. Although terms of the deals were not released, Keller seemed to indicate that he had taken a pay cut to allow the Sounders to field a more competitive team.
Even so, Hanauer confirms that some maneuvering will be necessary to make changes to the roster during the rest of the offseason.
“We are likely to do some more international scouting and this draft is very important to us with four picks in the first two rounds,” Hanauer told MLSsoccer.com. “If we were to add [another international player] to the roster, it would likely be an addition-by-subtraction situation. We just don’t have room to be adding more cap and more players to the roster.”
MLS rosters are required to be compliant by March 1, 2011.
Think you know the game? Test your powers of prediction with MLSsoccer.com's fantasy game,Pro Soccer Picks. Play NOW!
