Athletes - Brad Friedel

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	Athletes - Brad Friedel

Bradley Howard (Brad) Friedel (born May 18, 1971 in Lakewood, Ohio) is an American international football (soccer) goalkeeper who plays for Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League.

Club career

Friedel studied at UCLA (where he was a NCAA champion in 1990 and won the Hermann Trophy in 1992) and has been contracted to Danish side Brøndby, Turkish team Galatasaray, the Columbus Crew of MLS, and Liverpool. At Liverpool he had a terrible time managing just over 30 games in almost three years. In 2000 he was signed to Blackburn Rovers by Graeme Souness on a free transfer after a work permit was secured. Due to his American nationality, Friedel had problems securing a work permit to play in England on several occasions; this caused a move to Newcastle to fall through in 1995 and with Sunderland one year later. With the Sunderland dealing falling through he signed for Turkish giants Galatasaray who were managed by Friedel's future Blackburn manager Graeme Souness.

On February 21, 2004, Friedel scored a goal for Blackburn in the 89th minute to briefly tie Charlton Athletic in a league match. However, as Rovers celebrated, Claus Jensen put one in past Friedel to give Charlton a 3:2 victory.

International career

Friedel is the second most-capped goalkeeper in U.S. national team history and gained his first international cap against Canada in 1992 in which he managed to keep a clean sheet. He was the first choice goal keeper for the U.S 1992 Olympic team; however, he was unable to beat out Tony Meola as first choice keeper for the U.S. team at the 1994 World Cup. However his chance came, and Friedel made his World Cup debut in France '98 where he conceded one goal as the U.S. lost to Yugoslavia. He lived up to his growing reputation in Korea and Japan as the U.S. went on a surprising run to the quarterfinals, which included a 3-2 defeat of Portugal in group play and a 2-0 second-round win over archrival Mexico before a loss to Germany (the eventual runner-up). He also became the first keeper to save two penalty kicks during regular play (as opposed to penalty shootouts) in a World Cup finals tournament since 1974. He was dubbed "The Human Wall" by fans during the spectacular 2002 World Cup run.

On February 7, 2005, Friedel announced his retirement from international soccer. Soon therafter, he signed a new contract to finish his Premier League career with the Rovers. He is also breaking ground in 2006 on his dream project, Premier Soccer Academies, a US10,000,000 project that will emulate player development facilities found worldwide, but not in the United States. The mission of Premier Soccer Academies is to provide athletes with world-class coaching and facilities regardless of their socioeconomic background. It will be located in Lorain, Ohio.

Statistics

Blackburn Rovers - 211 appearances (as of the end of 2004/05 season), one goal scored
Liverpool - 31 appearances
Columbus Crew - 38 appearances
USA National Team - 82 appearances

Honours

NCAA Champion 1990 with UCLA
MLS Goalkeeper of the Year - 1997
Bronze medal at 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup with the U.S.
Won Worthington Cup in 2001/02 with Blackburn
U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year - 2002
Member of the 2002/03 PFA Premiership XI

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Brad Friedel ]

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