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Episode 368: Catching up with Sounders legend Kasey Keller
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Whether you loved or hated Kasey Keller as a Sounders broadcaster, it would be impossible to deny his place in club history. Not only was his signing ahead of the 2009 season a signal of intent from the new MLS franchise, but he was an inarguably massive part of how they came out of the gates and won U.S. Open Cups in each of his first three seasons. He also won a MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in his final season.
But Keller made an even longer-lasting mark by serving as the team’s color announcer on TV broadcasts from 2012-2022. During those 11 seasons, Keller barely a missed a game despite also working fulltime for ESPN and his commentary accompanies many of the greatest moments in club history.
Keller’s penchant for criticizing defenders more than praising offensive brilliance and insistence on remaining objective sometimes rubbed fans the wrong way, but his honesty was never questioned.
Although Keller is no longer on the Sounders broadcast — a casualty of the move to AppleTV — he was still more than happy to spend well over an hour with us where we talked about his current position with ESPN, his time with the Sounders as player and broadcaster, his journey from the South Sound to Europe, and many other things.
The full hourlong version of this interview is available to paid subscribers to our Substack.
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This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
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Transcript
Sponsorship Highlights
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to Nos Arietes.
00:00:32
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
00:00:50
Speaker
Thanks to Watson's Counter for sponsoring this episode. Located in Ballard, Watson's Counter is your neighborhood specialty coffee shop, brunch spot, and now, coffee roaster. Sourcing exclusively high scoring coffees, Watson's Counter has started their coffee roasting project to showcase amazing coffees grown around the world. Their first featured coffee is the beautifully complex washed Ethiopian Odola.
Interview with Casey Keller
00:01:12
Speaker
Follow them on Instagram at wantsonscounter to keep up with all the upcoming releases or check out their website at www.watsonscounter.com. Whether you want to stop by for your daily coffee to go or sit down for delicious Korean inspired brunch, Watson's Counter has got you covered.
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietes. This is the first part of our interview with former Sounders goalkeeper and broadcaster Casey Keller. Although he's now exclusively working for ESPN, he had been the longest-handured Sounders broadcaster in history and someone who was a true trailblazer for Americans in Europe. We were lucky enough to talk to him about his journey from the Olympia Egg Farm to the top of the soccer world in his time with the Sounders. To hear the full hour-long conversation, consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter at nosadietes.substack.com.
00:02:02
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietes.
Transition to ESPN and Apple TV Deal
00:02:06
Speaker
I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is a very special guest. I suspect you know him very well, but this is Casey Keller. Thank you for joining us, Casey. Nice to be on the show. So I was going to go through a whole intro.
00:02:21
Speaker
But like, we don't need an intro for Casey Keller. I would think listeners of this podcast are very familiar with your work. But that said, what are you doing now? You're an ESPN commentator. Correct. And I have been since I retired. I always did both. I was ESPN and sounders together.
00:02:48
Speaker
And when the sounders went, or I guess all of MLS went to Apple TV and there was no more local broadcast, then that kind of ended my local broadcast career.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah, it was a weird thing. I spoke with the people from Apple and I had a clause in my ESPN contract that allowed me to do Sounders games. I spoke with them and I said, look, I said, if you want me to do Sounders games, it's a no-brainer. It's easy. I've been doing it for the last 11 years and it's part of my ESPN contract and they were very adamant that they wanted a level of availability to fly anywhere at any time.
00:03:33
Speaker
You know, it was twofold. It was one where then I would have to, you know, basically go back to ESPN and rewrite my contract. But then also the difficult part of it was how many times if I'm doing Sounders games,
00:03:47
Speaker
I either, let's say a Sounders game was on a Saturday, maybe I did a La Liga game on a Sunday, or on the odd time where they were two at the same day, I would do a European game in the morning and then be able to go to the stadium.
Balancing Contracts and Commitments
00:04:03
Speaker
But even if it was the Sounders away game, I mean, I'll go back to the
00:04:07
Speaker
The Vancouver away game last year I drove home and then I had a game the next morning for ESPN. But if I'm flying all over the place and I am, you know, in the majority of the MLS games are going to be on Saturdays.
00:04:21
Speaker
If I'm flying commercial and I'm going and I'm there on a Friday, that means I can't do a game for ESPN on Saturday and I'm not home in time to do a game on Sunday. So it would have basically eliminated my ESPN contract. And so it was a shame that it wasn't the case where Apple wanted to kind of stick with the same
00:04:44
Speaker
uh, you know local presence for home games and and uh, I would have been excited to continue that That relationship but uh, it wasn't the case and i'm assuming you weren't really interested in just doing radio only at that I spoke to the club about doing radio and um And in basically says I understand that it's a a different price point and right uh, and if
00:05:12
Speaker
If they can if they could have figured something out to encompass some other things to make it you know financially viable then then I would have done it, but in the end, I mean it would have been the same time for.
00:05:28
Speaker
you know, five to 10% of what I was making. And you're just kind of like, who's going to do that? You know? And so it felt weird. I'll be honest with you. It felt really weird these last couple of weekends and not doing the games.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's, I was just doing the math. I mean, it's not the most complicated math in the world, but you've been doing sounders. You've done sounders against for 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. That's very few. Right. I had a few was in doing some, some national stuff. I had, I missed a few where I was actually doing some coaching for the national team.
Broadcasting Standards in MLS
00:06:04
Speaker
But, uh, but yeah, I mean, when I make a commitment to something, you know, there's a commitment, right? And you do it the right way. And that was one thing that I was so impressed by it.
00:06:14
Speaker
and for me to start my broadcast career and to be honest the Sounders had a National broadcast that was just shown locally, right? It was done, you know very professional what? Yeah, Brian O'Connell with the Seahawks when he started it and then when Ryan Shaver took it over after the split it was
00:06:40
Speaker
It was impressive. I mean, remember I learned with guys like Bob Lee and Mike Tarico and you know, guys that I was doing World Cups with and Euros and and US national team World Cup qualifier. So I worked with some pros and really, you know, cut my teeth with some pros and there was not much of a drop.
00:07:02
Speaker
doing sounders broadcasts. And I think that really, I mean, Keith gives a lot of credit for, you know, coming to the sounders and really being able to, you know, take things to another level because of how professional everything was done.
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I sometimes wonder if if we entirely appreciated just how professional the Sounders broadcast was during that those early years, because I think a lot of people are rightfully so comparing what we have now with Apple to what the Sounders had, which I think we need to recognize was a significant cut above
00:07:39
Speaker
what virtually any other MLS team was doing in terms of their local broadcast and that's not just that they were over the air but that they were like the broadcast themselves felt like national broadcast and it almost felt like a step down sometimes when we would have you know not to not to name names but some of the other uh networks that you don't work at when they would broadcast sounders games felt like a step down from our local broadcast
00:08:03
Speaker
I think particularly home broadcasts because when you write a full studio show with with the the people that you know from the Marcus Hanamans and the Brad Evans and Lamar and and and James and and everybody, you know, I mean it was the combination between World Cup veteran sounders to local guys to both and it was it was impressive what we were able to do and and
00:08:30
Speaker
And it is. I'm a little bit nervous. I'll be honest with you.
Concerns Over Apple TV Deal
00:08:33
Speaker
I'm a little bit nervous with with the Apple deal simply just because you're growing League and you're trying to get more eyes on your product and to put it behind a paywall.
00:08:49
Speaker
You're losing the casual fan that could become the fan because the casual fan's not paying $100 a year to watch your product until he becomes a diehard, right? And it's hard to become a diehard if you're not watching games.
00:09:06
Speaker
I'm nervous about what that's going to do for the viewing numbers. There's a lot of clubs that have struggled to get eyes on their product and now
00:09:21
Speaker
put that behind, you know, now you have to pay for the right to watch it. It's going to be tricky. Have you had a chance to watch any of the broadcasts in the last couple of weeks? No, I was working for the first game and then the second game I was given some sort of
00:09:41
Speaker
Access code that just didn't work. Oh Perfect. Yeah, so I was just like Alright, I guess I'm not gonna be watching this Well, that's that's a bummer So I what and I was I was hopeful that you have you seen the sound so you haven't seen either Sounders game is that well and actually during the Champions League game I was calling a game for ESPN so I
Sounders' Season Start and Challenges
00:10:07
Speaker
I was, I had it on. So I was like in, in, I was in corner of my eye trying to look at different stuff while the game was going on. But, uh, um, but no, I haven't really seen a whole lot. I mean, obviously happy with the start that Jordan's made and, uh, happy with obviously two clean shoots and a couple of victories. So great start. And then you don't, you'd almost assume that a little bit with getting the earlier start.
00:10:33
Speaker
you know with the focus from the champions league now the question mark will always come anytime you've started earlier than everybody else is what does that look like in august in september um because we know mls isn't a league where
00:10:51
Speaker
Week one is the same as is week 30 I think we all hope that it'll be at some stage because we all know right now Let's just take a look at the premier league or even the bonus league, which is even tighter But but arsenal knows that if they lost a couple games in the first two weeks of the season They would not have a five-point lead on man city. We know that mls doesn't work that way Um, and and so it doesn't have that same you just know that you have to be playing well At the end of the season and make it into the playoffs
Jordan Morris and Performance Potential
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, it is 100% a different thing. And it's not that it wouldn't be that five-point cushion. It's just that the five-point cushion doesn't matter as much in MLX. Exactly. And so you know that you can
00:11:38
Speaker
figure things out. You have time to figure stuff out where you know, if you're not clicking from day one and picking up points consistently, then you're pretty much out of the title race. Right. Right. Uh, that said, the sounders have looked, uh, have looked really good. I I've been, I've been very impressed with, with, with what I've seen. It's been a lot of fun. I'm not really sure though, Jeremiah, if
00:12:01
Speaker
It's the best gauge against Colorado. Right. Absolutely. I think it would be delusional for us to convince ourselves that beating RSL in Colorado is the same as stacking up against the best teams in the league. And like you said, to me, it looks like the Sounders had a head start on everyone.
00:12:25
Speaker
Um, and it's not, and it's a different animal than champions league, right? Because champions league is played concurrently with the season. Whereas the club world cup, it was, you had to be ready two weeks earlier than everyone. Right. Well, and then, and then the travel and the focus and everything that came along with that. Also, I think you're looking at a sounder side that, you know, because of the money commitments.
00:12:47
Speaker
there's no real wholesale changes either. And anytime you come into a season, and maybe you've made five or six signings that it takes some time to integrate into your team. Well, it's
00:13:00
Speaker
You know, Evers looks like he's come in and fit in really well, but you're not making, like I said, it's not four or five guys out and four or five guys in and having to figure out a new way of doing stuff. So I think it helped or it definitely can help in how you start a season.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I think there's a lot of things that have worked in the Sounders favor in this early part of the season. You know, that said, all you can do is beat the teams that are in front of you. We also had a very good start to the season last year winning Champions League and then it didn't quite work out as well toward the end. So again, it's a marathon. It's not a sprint, but it's it never hurts to get off to a good start.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, since we're on the topic, Jordan Morris to me has been the player who has stood out in terms of just the level up that he seems to have taken from last year when he was obviously coming back from an ACL injury.
00:13:59
Speaker
From your, you know, you've been around him a lot. How much do you think confidence just plays a part in, in how he performs? Any striker, any striker confidence is, is, is key. But I think I don't think there's any question that Jordan was disappointed with his output last year. And, and like any striker you're like a goalkeeper, you know, you're judged on specifics and
00:14:24
Speaker
And if you're a national team World Cup striker and you had six goals last year, there's an expectation in MLS that 16 would be a year that you would be
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's fine.
World Cup Experiences
00:14:39
Speaker
20 plus is great. But, you know, and obviously there's with the double injuries and the different things that have happened where he's had to come back from, there's always that, you know, there's a level of expectation and also, I guess you're accepting that it might take a little more time.
00:15:07
Speaker
And so nothing you can do better is have a bit of a break, come back and start over again. And obviously Jordan had very little playing time at the World Cup but has come back now and in showing what he's capable of doing. And that's all you can really ask for. Now the key for Jordan is to be able to do it.
00:15:30
Speaker
consistently throughout the season. Because I see no reason why Jordan can't be a 20 plus gold score in MLS. I mean, he seems to have the ability. Yep. And of course, he's had some setbacks. Absolutely. And he's had to recover from that. Now we'll see if he can put a level of consistency together.
00:15:52
Speaker
So you, you have a unique experience, uh, with the national team and that you were there as the number one and you were there as sort of like a guy who was there for the kind of for the experience. Um, how, how much does that differ in terms of what it does for your, like, do you feel like you get, like when you come back to the, to a club after you've been to a world cup without necessarily playing a ton, do you think that still has carryover effect in terms of your confidence?
00:16:19
Speaker
Think it depends on the situation. I think every situation is different I mean, I think if you're you know, my first World Cup in 1990 when I was 20 years old and hadn't played a professional game yet Yeah, there's there's different ways and then and then there's ways when like said you're you're the starter and everything you know you you play the majority of the qualifying games and everything that comes in right so
00:16:45
Speaker
But then I think if you look at world football and you look at players, you know, look at the French national team, look at how many stars had very little playing time. Brazil, you know, we're just. It was a situation, I think, for the US where particularly when you look at the kind of the attacking outside players.
00:17:08
Speaker
where the US had four players that were arguably should have been starting. And that doesn't happen for two positions. And that doesn't really happen that often in the US setup. So the bigger our squads get, the more experience our guys have at the higher levels.
00:17:30
Speaker
the more difficult it is for coaches to have to make difficult decisions. And what do we talk about France before every World Cup starts? If they can keep the egos in check, they have a chance of winning the tournament. If they implode for whatever reason, then we've seen some glorious implosions from the French national team. And that happens. When you're dealing with big stars at big clubs,
00:18:01
Speaker
and only so many can play, that's where the man management aspect of a national team really comes into play and it's so crucial. So how close do you think the US is getting to the point where, you know, you have a lot of players who I think are making bids for starting minutes, but they're not necessarily stars at the club level, right? How close do you think the US is getting to the point where it's a real, that's a sort of real challenge?
00:18:31
Speaker
Or is it already a real challenge? I think we're a ways away still.
US Players in Europe
00:18:36
Speaker
Because I still think, like you mentioned, we really don't have world stars. And even if you looked at the latest trend, we went from a handful of guys, or maybe more than a handful of guys,
00:18:56
Speaker
at big clubs in Champions League, and then look how quickly within a year, almost nobody left. You have guys that are now more likely to be fighting relegation than they are fighting for titles. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, by all means, the learning curve and being, be somewhere where you're playing week in and week out. And if you happen to be good enough,
00:19:25
Speaker
to get to the real Madrid's of the world. Great. But I would much rather have somebody like I would, I would much rather have Eunice Musa fighting relegation at Valencia and playing week in and week out than being a squad player at a bigger club. Right.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, especially at that age, right? Where they are... You gotta play. Jeremiah, you gotta play. I mean, there's no substitute for that side of things. And if...
00:19:58
Speaker
Look, I've seen guys that have been about the paycheck and I'm not gonna judge on everybody has their own personal decision that they have to make based off of what they think their goals are. I had to play. I enjoyed the challenge of winning over a new teammates, coaches, fans, country. I enjoyed the aspect of that. And if it was,
00:20:25
Speaker
if something changed and it was time to move on then great look I only had one situation where I left for playing time and you know I'd played a hundred games in a row for Tottenham and
00:20:37
Speaker
Chairman decided they wanted to go young and British and I was neither and And so I had the opportunity to go to Glottbach and you know, so it is it's it's little situations like that Yeah, I could have stayed at Tottenham for a little bit longer resign, you know, maybe made a little bit more money, but I made good money I didn't need and the experience and the playing and the Going to a different country and yeah, I loved every minute of it
Soccer Personal Dynamics and Media Portrayal
00:21:06
Speaker
So you have some, while we're on the national team subject, you have, maybe not, I wouldn't say a unique experience with this, but you played with both Greg Berhalter, Claudio Reyna, you know a lot about what- They're both very good friends of mine. Right. There you go. And that was sort of, that ended up manifesting itself in sort of the same situation we're talking about, with playing time and balancing that out. What was your perspective on that whole situation?
00:21:34
Speaker
Thought it my my main perspective is that it was really sad because it's it's long long time friends You know Greg and Claudio went to high school together Danielle and Rosalyn were Same thing good what played club soccer together were roommates in college together just long long family friends
00:22:01
Speaker
And you just wish it hadn't have devolved into what it did. And a lot of it wasn't, it was misrepresented a little bit in the press. And it was a shame the way that it all went down. And now I think everybody's just hoping that it pretty much runs its course or it has run its course. And it's a shame that that's the way it happened. And now everybody can just move forward and figure out how they go from here.
00:22:31
Speaker
is there something to be said where you have, because it wasn't obviously, it's not just the relationship between Claudio and Greg, but it's Ernie Stewart, it's Brian McBride, it's people up and down the organization. I mean, and these are all guys that are admittedly from your sort of your generation. We're all friends. I mean, and so that's the part of it when you hear stories of, oh, the helicopter parents. Well,
00:22:59
Speaker
It's not really helicopter parents because Greg and Claudio had been friends for 35, 40 years. You know, Ernie and Claudio and Brian have been friends for 25 years. So it's not like you're just...
00:23:14
Speaker
It's not Jordan's dad calling Ernie Stewart and saying, you know, what's going on here? You know, it's a little bit different than that. Well, I think that's, I mean, that's sort of one of the fascinating things about it, right? It's that it's like, where does the line get drawn between this is how professionals, a professional player's parent
00:23:33
Speaker
His relationship with the technical director is when you how do you you can just sort of throw that out the window when they are? casual friends and they exactly and I think that was something that I think the press didn't do a very good job of You know because it sounds great that it's these right, you know, here's these parents contacting. Well, it doesn't work it's not that relationship is way deeper than than that and and so
00:24:01
Speaker
And so, yeah, I mean, look, I think it's it's, you know, Greg wishes he would have done stuff different. Geo wishes he would have done stuff different. You know, Claudio Danielle wish they would have done stuff different because it doesn't get to that level without lots of mistakes across the board. It's not one thing. It's not one person. It's a it's a collective that that took a life of its own. And some of it, too, is the
00:24:32
Speaker
know, kind of just like the new corporate bylaws that have to be done, right? I mean, this is a conversation between old friends that then had to start then had to somehow move into an investigation on something that happened 30 years previously when it was just a, it'd be like you and me talking and then I say something, you know, all of a sudden there's
00:24:55
Speaker
There's law firms involved for nothing that was more than just a conversation between you and I. So it's, again, like I said, it's a series of unfortunate events and hopefully now everybody can just get on with what they're doing and it'll just be one of those blips. Look, I think the reason why it became more of a blip than it really should have been is because there really hasn't been a lot of drama with the men's national team.
00:25:25
Speaker
Well, not since 2002 or 98, I mean, you know, but even that was internal, right? Right. And that, and that took 10 years to come out. Right. Like if I, if I remember the timeline correctly, exactly. And there's, and so there was, obviously there's a, a bigger, uh,
00:25:45
Speaker
focus on the sport now, there's more outlets to be able to, I was talking to Jeff Carlisle about different things and I said, this must be heaven for you because there's really nothing for you to talk about right now and this just keeps having legs and you can keep reporting on something where, look, obviously every other sport, every country, there's always tabloid,
00:26:14
Speaker
You know fodder that's that's constantly happening, right? But the men's national team really hasn't been a lot and so when you do then take the deep dives into old friendships and and the craziness that kind of came out of that and then yeah, I can see where it had it had but now the key is that and I think the most important side of that is is is geo just gets to
00:26:42
Speaker
just gets to be judged as a player because that's all that really matters. And let's be honest, Jeremiah, the Germans don't care about this. Dortmund doesn't care. No, that's the impression. A young player, play well for them and nobody else cares. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
00:26:58
Speaker
What's what's been your involvement with US soccer lately? I mean you I know at one point you were sort of like a you were a goalkeeper's coach for the national team Are you still involved? Are you interested? I had a good relationship with Klinsman and I still have a good relationship with Jurgen and So he had asked me at different times to help him out to come in do some coaching do some
00:27:24
Speaker
You know almost a little bit like the role that McBride was doing I did that for not not on a full-time basis But came in and started some of that stuff So Yeah, I really know as this whole you know turnover has happened, you know, and then obviously I was I was doing World Cup qualifiers for ESPN as well, but now that
00:27:47
Speaker
You know, it feels weird, you know, ESPN doesn't have rights to either now after so much time and yeah, it's gonna feel strange when qualifying comes around as well and it's on Turner and yeah, it's kind of feels a little bit like the Like the apple deal like it's just no longer part of something that had been a staple
Pioneering European Soccer Career
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I would love to like talk to you a little bit about your, your journey to this point. You know, you grew up at a time in American soccer where there were, was no, there was no American soccer in a, in the way that we think of it now. You know, you're, you're, you're playing high school, high school soccer, and then you're, you go to college and then all you were lucky enough to get into the national team and you, you turned that into a,
00:28:37
Speaker
A a career in england and in europe. Um, I don't know if people really understand that when you went to europe It was literally unprecedented for an american to be playing on an american passport in england, correct? I mean I was I was The first um to truly go through the whole work permit process And and and get awarded um
00:29:05
Speaker
Some of the rules in England actually started with me I had had I think about 10 caps at the time Youth, you know World Cup silver ball second most valuable player the Youth World Cup Some under 23 stuff and so
00:29:25
Speaker
I was the first person in England that they gave this, you know, I had signed a, I officially signed my contract on Valentine's Day. So I had got there on trial at the beginning of December.
00:29:46
Speaker
And then so I got a work permit for the remainder of that season, which was only, you know, two and a half months, two months, because the championship pretty much finishes the first week of May. And then one full season to prove myself. And then that became the standard bearer.
00:30:04
Speaker
for non EEC work permits was that, yeah, you can sign a contract, but you have to play so many percentage of the games. You have to do this national team stuff. And if you don't, then, then you will get your work permit revoked. And, and so I was the, the, the first person that that started with. So you weren't just playing for a contract. You were playing for a work permit on top of that. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Skipping Olympics for Club Career
00:30:30
Speaker
So I didn't go to the 92
00:30:33
Speaker
Olympics because I had played the last game of the season my first year. And I would have basically missed all of preseason to go to the Olympics and had a, you know, my, my manager at Millwall and, and the, and US soccer had a long conversation. We were all on a conference call together and the club basically said, look, he can fly over, you know, five days before the tournament starts.
00:31:04
Speaker
because we can't justify him missing all the preseason and losing his work permit. And the Federation said, well, if he can't be here for all of the preparation, then he can't go. And the club was like, well, then he can't go. And the thought process of three games in an Olympics, I played 202 games in four years for mobile.
00:31:33
Speaker
It was the start of a career. I'm thankful that Mick McCarthy and Millwall said no to the Olympics because it truly was the start of a career. When you were there, what were you leaning on in terms of
00:31:57
Speaker
I mean, it just feels like now we have so much more, uh, there's a playbook, uh, for lack of a better term on, on how to sort of make that move. But there was none of that when you went, I mean, I had a lot of X, uh, and ASL, uh, coaches.
00:32:14
Speaker
Clive Charles, University of Portland, Bobby Howe, Tony Waiters, the former Canadian national team coach, we're all friends, Stuart Lee, another former sounder. And you know who signed to me at Millwall was Bruce Rieck, another former sounder. So basically what it was, was you had a group of NSL coaches,
00:32:36
Speaker
or sorry, former NSL players who were now either they had married Americans or they had built a life in America and didn't want to go home. So they were now coaching here.
00:32:48
Speaker
Now there was also a group of ex nasl guys that went home and obviously a group of these guys that they all played with so when it was coming time for my for
Support from NASL Players
00:33:00
Speaker
the opportunity to go over there was a lot of inquiries made back in england and and a lot of those coaches Who are now back in england were actually here
00:33:12
Speaker
So I was too young. They didn't know me, but what they knew was the level of the American player was better than they were getting credited for because they had been here and they witnessed it and they trained with these guys and they played with these guys. And they also trusted the guys that were here to say, this is a kid you need to look at.
00:33:33
Speaker
And so I think it was the second round of the playoffs I lost to UCLA. And then three days later, four days later, I was on a flight to England on trial and I came home 17 years later.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah. And it was quite a journey. I mean, it was, uh, like, I don't know. It's, it's sometimes hard to put it into context. I mean, I'll tell you how you put it in the context. And this was from Arlo, uh, after I'd retired from the national team in 2010, we were doing, uh, I had a, I had a sponsorship with Budweiser. And so we were doing, uh, appearances for Budweiser at different bars and questioned and answer and speaking engagements and stuff like that. And I, and I brought in Arlo to moderate.
00:34:20
Speaker
And you know these things that you do something and you don't really put it into perspective until later in your career and somebody kind of, to your point, they phrase it in a way that it really kind of catches you. So we're in one of these engagements and we're talking about my time in Spain.
Unique La Liga Experience
00:34:43
Speaker
And Arlo put it this way. He said, let's put this into perspective.
00:34:48
Speaker
significantly more Americans have walked on the moon than have played in La Liga. I kind of looked at them and I went, wow, that's a that's a that's an interesting point. And you know, and yeah, so yeah, I was the first American to play in La Liga and the strange part about it was
00:35:12
Speaker
It took something like 14 or 15 years for another American to play at the Camp Nou from when I did. So it wasn't like I started something and then here's this flood. It was just even
00:35:32
Speaker
So much more difficult. It was it was it was strange. It was a really It was cool that I was able to do some stuff and going back to that, you know I mean you talked about the you know back at the time when I made these decisions there's a there's a level of
00:35:50
Speaker
hubris level of arrogance Uh that you have to have as a professional athlete. Yeah, and You know, I remember I was about 15 and I was giving up The other american sports, you know to choose to be a soccer player and I remember sitting down I mean my dad my dad pitched at washington state and got drafted in the late late rounds And never went because he just didn't you know when you're drafted like in the 16th round or whatever You don't really think that that's a real viable option. But so
00:36:20
Speaker
know, he was really questioning why I was choosing a sport that had no professional league, you know, in our own country, because this is a time before MLS, you know, nsl had folded, you know, I wasn't playing indoor. And so, and of course, the arrogance of youth at 1516 years old,
00:36:43
Speaker
Oh, dad, don't worry. You know, my plan is to, you know, do this and then go over, you know, to Europe and preferably England. You know, from a 16 year old farm kid from Olympia, when no other person had ever done
Pursuing Dreams with Backup Plans
00:36:58
Speaker
that. Yeah, I'm just proclaiming it 1516. But the way I always kind of phrase it now when I have a speaking event or something like that, I said, Look,
00:37:07
Speaker
If you don't dream it, it's never going to happen. Now, what you need to do is understand that the percentages are against you. So by all means, dream it. Do everything you possibly can to try to achieve that goal, but also make sure that there's a safety plan, that there's something else.
00:37:35
Speaker
You know, when I went to University of Portland, I had good grades, right? I finished my education later. But I also put myself in a position where I didn't have three and a half years left to finish that.
00:37:49
Speaker
Uh, because yeah if it didn't work out which You know, like I said, the the percentages are against you that it's going to So make sure that you prepare for something else What was your backup plan though? Oh, I had no backup plan. You can be The backup plan was
00:38:09
Speaker
Make sure that you could figure that out if it didn't work out, that you didn't put yourself in such a hole that you didn't know what you were going to do. And then unfortunately enough, I never really had to go down that route. Thanks for listening to the first part of our hour long interview with sounders legend, Casey Keller.
00:38:31
Speaker
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00:38:49
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Mountain wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:39:21
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!