Sommer Picked Over Keller for U.S. Team : Soccer: World Cup invitation denied to one of the top English First Division goalkeepers.

One day after being knocked almost unconscious by an opposing striker in London, American goalkeeper Juergen Sommer was rendered equally dizzy by a transatlantic phone call from Los Angeles.

The call, made Wednesday by a U.S. Soccer Federation official, told Sommer, 25, that he had been chosen to play for the U.S. team in this summer’s World Cup tournament.

It stunned Sommer; or it least it would have had he been home.

“My wife, Susie, took the call,” Sommer said late Wednesday night. “I was at a team dinner, but I could see when I got home that she had good news.

“It’s a big relief to finally know it’s official. I’ve known for some time that I was under consideration, that I was one of four or five goalkeepers they were looking at.

“It’s great to know for sure that I’ve been chosen.”

What was good news for Sommer, however, was bad news for Kasey Keller, the other leading candidate to join Tony Meola and Brad Friedel on the U.S. World Cup team.

Keller, like Sommer, plays in the English First Division. But their teams have headed in opposite directions in the season now ending. With only a couple of games remaining, Keller’s Millwall is in a race for a playoff spot and possible promotion to the Premier League.

Sommer’s Luton Town, meanwhile, narrowly avoided relegation to the Second Division.

Yet, Sommer was chosen for the U.S. team, not Keller, who was the United States’ No. 2 goalkeeper behind Meola in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Keller, from Olympia, Wash., declined comment Wednesday, but his wife described him as “obviously very disappointed.”

“He’ll say something on Friday,” Kristen Keller said. “He wants a day to think about it. It’s not something he really had any control over. It wasn’t his choice to make.”

Keller, 24, has played only once for the U.S. national team since Bora Milutinovic took over as coach three years ago. He has preferred to concentrate on his professional career in England and has done well there.

Several Premier League clubs have expressed interest in signing him, and he has been highly praised by the English soccer media.

But he hurt his cause by becoming embroiled in a squabble with the federation over which brand of goalkeeping gloves he would wear when the United States played Scotland in Denver two years ago. He has not been chosen for the team since.

Another possible contributing factor was Keller’s comments about deserving a spot on the team based on his performance as a starter in the English First Division. This did not sit well in Mission Viejo, the U.S. team’s training base.

Sommer, meanwhile, kept a lower profile while still playing exceptionally well for struggling Luton. He helped the club reach the semifinals of the Football Assn. Cup, its best achievement in years, and with the victory Tuesday, the club has escaped relegation.

Sommer, who was born in New York, won an NCAA championship at Indiana University, where he compiled a 58-8-6 record after coming in as a walk-on freshman in 1987.

The son of a former professional goalkeeper in Germany, Sommer said his experience playing in England has been invaluable.

“It took me a while to adjust to the strength and pace of the game over here,” he said. “But I’ve learned a lot about angles and reading the game and taking crosses.”

Milutinovic has not said which of the three goalkeepers will be his World Cup starter.