By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 23 April 08.

American goalkeeper Brad Friedel only played twenty five games for Liverpool in three seasons. A lot of Liverpool fans, including myself, feel that he should have been more of a regular in the first team. Considering how much hassle the club went through to gain him a work permit, I always felt his outstanding abilities were wasted by the club. This opinion has since been justified by his performances for Blackburn Rovers and the U.S national team.

Brad was born in Bay Village, Ohio in May 1971. During his teenage years Brad was regarded as a natural athlete, excelling in several sports including football, basketball and tennis. In 1989 he received the Bay High Outstanding Athlete of the Year award.

Brad studied at UCLA where he was a member of the men's football team. Over his three seasons at UCLA (1990-1992), he established himself as one of the greatest ever American collegiate goalkeepers. In 1990, he helped the Bruins to win the NCAA Championship. In 1992 ‘SoccerAmerica’ magazine named Brad to its College Team of the Century.

He left UCLA early to start a professional football career in 1992. As there was no professional league in America at the time, Brad was forced to look overseas for a team. He moved over to England and tried to sign for Nottingham Forest. Unfortunately he was denied an English work permit due to the fact he hadn’t played the minimum 75% of the U.S national sides games in the previous two years. Problems getting a British work permit were to become a regular occurrence for Brad over the next six years. After he was unable to sign for Nottingham Forest he decided to move back to America and sign an exclusive two year contract with the U.S Soccer Federation to play for the national team.

The MLS (Major League Soccer) league was formed in December 1993. It was established to fulfill a promise to FIFA by the U.S Soccer Federation to set up a professional league in exchange for staging the 1994 World Cup. Brad was in the squad for the World Cup but he was unable to displace team captain Tony Meola as the number one. After the World Cup ended Brad decided to once again search for a professional club to join. He was signed on loan for Newcastle United by Kevin Keegan. Once again he was denied a work permit so he practised with Newcastle while he looked for another club overseas. He eventually signed a loan deal with Brondby IF in the Danish Superliga. Brad played ten games in Denmark before rejoining the U.S national squad for the 1995 U.S Cup and Copa America tournaments.

Brad then tried to join Sunderland and was denied a British work permit for the third time. He ended up signing for Turkish side Galatasary in 1995, managed by Graeme Souness. Galatasaray signed Brad to a full time contract and paid the U.S Soccer Federation $1.1 million. Brad played thirty games during the 1995/96 season and was involved in one of the most controversial endings to a game in European football history.

Galatasaray had won the Turkish Super League in the previous two seasons but failed to repeat that success in the 1995/96 season. However they did win the Turkish Cup in 1996 by beating their big rivals in Istanbul, Fenerbahce. This is one of the bitterest rivalries in world football and this particular game is possibly the most famous in Turkish football history. Fenerbahce were competing for the title with Trabzonspor while Galatasaray were struggling in the league. When Galatasaray reached the cup final against Fenerbahce, which was played over two legs, everybody thought it would be an easy win for Fenerbahce. The Fenerbahce chairman made some comments about Souness as a coach and didn’t consider Galatasaray to be worthy opponents. Galatasaray surprisingly beat Fenerbahce in the first leg by a Dean Saunders penalty. The second leg was played in the hell atmosphere of the Fenerbahce stadium. After 90 minutes Fenerbahce were leading 1-0, but in extra time Dean Saunders equalised, winning the cup for Galatasaray. Souness, got carried away with this great victory and took a giant Galatasaray flag and planted it in the centre of the pitch. This wasn’t appreciated by the Fenerbahce fans of course but he was the hero for all Galatasaray fans. Souness was lucky to leave the stadium with his life that night and departed Istanbul soon afterwards after Galtasaray’s poor league finish.

Brad Friedel also departed Turkey at the end of the season and returned to Ohio, America, joining Columbus Crew in the MLS. Brad arrived mid-season and was initially the reserve goalkeeper. However he soon became a first team starter and in 1997 he was named the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. It was at this stage that Liverpool became interested in signing him.

David James was the number one for Liverpool in 1997 but his erratic form was one of the reasons that Liverpool lost the league title to Manchester Utd. David James was nicknamed ‘Calamity James’ by the Liverpool fans but manager Roy Evans kept a public faith in him despite his regular mistakes. During the first few months of the 1997/98 season Roy Evans decided to bring in another quality goalkeeper as a backup for James and he decided to purchase Brad Friedel from the MLS for $1.7 million in October 1997. Once again Brad had problems gaining a British work permit and he was denied at first. However Liverpool appealed the decision because Brad was only fractionally short of the minimum 75% appearance record for the U.S national side. In December 1997 Brad was finally approved by the Department of Employment to start his career in the English League.

Despite David James inconsistencies between the sticks, Brad was unable to break into the first team on a regular basis during the 1997/98 season and only played eleven games. In the summer of 1998 Brad played his first ever game in the World Cup Finals for the USA. Unfortunately they lost every single game in the group stages, including a shock defeat to Iran, and finished last overall in the tournament.

After the World Cup, Gerard Houllier joined Liverpool in a joint manager partnership with Roy Evans. Brad was again unable to break into the first team on a regular basis and only played twelve games during a poor season for the Reds. The problems between Evans and Houllier that led to Roy’s departure had a bad effect on the club and they finished in a disappointing seventh place, only two points ahead of Derby County. At the end of the season David James was sold to Aston Villa and Brad was hopeful that this would be his chance to be a regular starter for Liverpool. However Sander Westerweld was signed from Vitesse Arnhem in Holland and Brad’s first team opportunities became even scarcer. In the 1999/2000 season he only managed two appearances for the first team and he once again had problems with his work permit. Due to his limited appearances it would be a problem for him to extend his work permit as his legal status in Britain required him to play a certain number of games. Brad did not want to lose his work status and in November 2000 he joined Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer where he was reunited with Graeme Souness and a new work permit was secured.

His career at Blackburn has been a great success and he has now been there for eight seasons and barely missed a game in that time. In his first season he assisted Blackburn in gaining promotion to the Premiership and since then he has established himself as one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the league. In his second season at Blackburn he played an absolute blinder in the 2002 League Cup Final as Blackburn defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1. Brad followed this with some tremendous performances during the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea. The U.S team made it through to the quarter finals where they were defeated by eventual finalists Germany. It was during the 2002 World Cup that Brad gained his reputation for saving penalties with two stopped in open play during the group stages. This was the first time a goalkeeper had saved two penalties in the group stages since 1974.

At the end of the 2002/03 season Brad was named as goalkeeper in the Premiership Starting Eleven after fifteen clean sheets. This also earned him the award for Blackburn’s player of the season. In 2004 Brad scored a goal in open play for Blackburn in the ninetieth minute against Charlton Athletic. Another memorable performance came in September 2006 when he saved two penalties in a 0-0 draw against Sheffield United. Brad has recently signed a contract extension with Blackburn stating that; “Blackburn Rovers is home to me. This is my club and I have a special affinity with it”.

Brad Friedel was never given a proper chance to establish himself at Liverpool and with hindsight this is a terrible shame. At the time I was a big fan of him and I was constantly frustrated that David James and Sander Westerweld were chosen ahead of him. His career since leaving Anfield has proven that he is an outstanding goalkeeper and further proof of this is that he has the record for the most consecutive Premiership appearances with 175 games. Despite the fact that he only played twenty five times for Liverpool he still deserves the respect of all Liverpool supporters whenever he returns to Merseyside.

Short video of Friedel scoring for Blackburn:

Friedel Scores!

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

Standings as of 24 April 08.
Congrats to Dan who correctly guessed Rafa's last two starting eleven perfectly!

Rank	Member	Points
1	Dennis	69
2	Pat	45
3	Dan	38
4	Glenn	30
5	Mark	29
6	Richard	26
7	Ste	16
8	Keith	14
9	Kevin	11
10	Andy	3
11	Luvdeep	1
11	Chris	1
13	Blake	0

To enter the members contest see the rules below.

RULES:

• Only open to paid LFC Vancouver Members.
• You list the names of the players you think will start the next LFC match.
• You must submit your list to lfcvancouver [at] gmail.com at least 12 hours before kick-off.
• This contest will include every match that LFC plays this season.
• The member(s) that correctly guess the starting XI will be awarded 5 points.
• At the end of the season the player with the most points will win the prize.
• What is the prize? It is a surprise!
• The standings will be included in each week’s newsletter.

Scoring System:

• 11 Correct picks = 5 points.
• 10 Correct picks = 3 points.
• 9 Correct picks = 1 point.
• 0-8 Correct picks = 0 points.

YNWA/JFT 96,

Andy Neumann