A NET GAIN
There are nights when Ian Feuer feels like a 6-foot-6 duck in a soccer shooting gallery. Nights when the porous defense of the New England Revolution is especially faulty and the crosses and headers and corner kicks come at him in waves.
In some of these games, Feuer was outstanding and still surrendered four or five goals. It is not the happy homecoming the former Canoga Park High player envisioned when he returned to the United States in March after playing in the English First Division.
“I’m enjoying [playing in New England], but things will hopefully get better,” Feuer said. “It just seems so hard sometimes that I’m getting so many shots to deal with. Sometimes the things you do get overlooked because of the score.”
New England (4-12) has lost nine consecutive games, tying the league record it set last season.
Revolution Coach Thomas Rongen said Feuer bears no individual responsibility for the skid.
“Ian is part of our overall misery and to blame him for the streak would be foolish,” Rongen said. “I really expected more from him, but he is certainly the future goalkeeper of the New England Revolution.”
Feuer, 27, played with Luton Town for three seasons before signing with the MLS.
Playing in England, where soccer is the No. 1 sport, gave Feuer invaluable experience and conditioned him for the tough times he has encountered with the Revolution.
“England is probably the hardest country to be a goalkeeper in because the attack never lets up on you and the fans are all over you,” he said. “One night I had a full Coke can thrown at me from 20 rows up.”
In 1994, Feuer became the first American goalkeeper to sign with a team in England’s Premier League, the country’s top level of soccer. He served as the No. 2 goalkeeper with West Ham United for 2 1/2 years, traveling to the grounds of such storied teams as Manchester United and Liverpool.
At his request, Feuer was loaned to Luton Town, a team playing one level down. There, Feuer started for three seasons and was selected the team’s most valuable player after one campaign.
Adjusting to the MLS hasn’t been easy for Feuer, who complains that the Revolution needs a more cohesive effort along the back line.
“The English game is just such a solid game where everybody does what they’re capable of doing to not give the ball up,” he said. “It’s more of a team game.
“Here, you have a lot of really skilled players but not the teamwork. It’s frustrating but you can’t point the finger.”
A saving grace for Feuer has been the league’s professional touches, for which he is grateful.
“The facilities and the [New England] organization in general are great,” Feuer said. “At Luton we changed in a room the size of my bathroom now. The training fields we played on had no grass whatsoever, the balls were worn down and you played games on cold, rainy Tuesday nights.”
However bleak the conditions, European soccer provided Feuer with the competitive training he sought at 17, when he left the U.S. to sign with FC Brugge, a team in Belgium’s first division.
His time at Canoga Park and with semipro teams around the Valley left him convinced his development was best served overseas.
“Playing in Europe, especially as an American, is so much harder,” Feuer said. “You have to battle so hard, not just to be as good, but to be better. Because if you’re only as good, they’ll pick a European guy.”
Feuer played in Belgium from 1988-92, mostly as a reserve for FC Brugge and RWD Molenbeek, another first division team.
Locked in a contract dispute with club officials, he was freed in 1993 when FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing body, intervened and cleared the way for him to sign with the Los Angeles Salsa of the American Professional Soccer League.
After playing for the Salsa in 1994, he began playing in England.
Feuer’s efforts abroad attracted the attention of MLS scouts and the league signed him in March. He arrived two days before the Revolution’s debut and he has the worst goals-against average (2.58) of any MLS goalkeeper with at least five appearances. The transition is taking time, but Rongen remains high on the MLS’ tallest player.
“Ian is one of those unique goalkeepers who have the tremendous height and wingspan but also do well on balls that are driven at them on the ground,” Rongen said.
“But he needs to work on his communication with the players in front of him. He can’t just be rah-rah, he needs to give specific commands to the players by name.”
With the MLS having slowed its schedule recently to limit the impact of absent players competing in the World Cup, Feuer has had plenty of time to watch soccer’s showcase event.
It’s a stage he feels he deserves a chance upon which to compete, having been the U.S. reserve goalkeeper in the 1992 Olympics and in scattered World Cup qualifying matches.
“If I had a good five or six games [with the national team], I could show what I could do, but I haven’t had that,” Feuer said. “I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t come through the American system, going to college and all that, but every time I’ve trained with the team, guys have told me I’ve done really well.”
A shake-up of the national team seems imminent following its 0-3 record in the World Cup. Despite the setback, Feuer foresees continued growth for U.S. soccer and plans to ride the wave as far as it will take him.
“I love the lifestyle in America and it was time to come home,” he said. “I’m looking forward to more and more people getting into the game over here.”
