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Freidel rules himself out of next US match Published: April 10, 1998
United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel has turned down the chance to play for his country in their forthcoming friendlies opting to play for Liverpool instead. Friedel has chosen instead to make himself available for home team Liverpool rather than the Austria game on April 22nd and possibly other friendly games after that. FriedelÆs concern stems from his having to apply for a new work permit. The current one runs out at the end of the season. As such he has not played enough games for Liverpool to warrant it being renewed and could face being forced to leave England barely six months after arriving in the country. Before Joining Liverpool Friedel had battled for six years to get an English work permit. Subsequent Transfers to Newcastle and Leeds were scuppered by his continually being turned down and it even looked at one point as though the same would happen to the Liverpool transfer. It is unlikely that Friedel will put his World Cup place in jeopardy. number one keeper Kasey Keller announced this week that he wants a transfer from Leicester city to an overseas club either in Italy or Germany. This would subsequently involve a great deal of upheaval so close to the finals. Also the US will still need two decent keepers for France 98. Of the current batch Freidel and Kasey Keller are top of the list but other US keepers fall far short of the mark. US94 keeper Tony Meola is well past his peak while Jurgen Sommer is unimpressive. There are other younger ækeepers coming up through the ranks and it is thought that Sampson will take one to the finals for the experience but it would be extremely unlikely that he would get a game. |