Keller Is a Star on the Outside Looking in
Here are a few clues in the form of headlines that appeared last year in Soccer America magazine:
“Keller Double Beats Japan.”
“Keller On Fire.”
“Keller KOs Canada.”
Now here’s the question: Which U.S. women’s national team player had the most successful year of her career in 1998 and yet is fighting a probable losing battle to make the World Cup roster in 1999?
That’s right, Debbie Keller, the former North Carolina forward whose sexual harassment lawsuit against long-time Tar Heel Coach Anson Dorrance and assorted other athletic department personnel in Chapel Hill has left her very much on the outside looking in.
Despite scoring 14 goals and assisting on two others in 23 games for the U.S. in 1998--third best behind Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett--Keller was not one of the 26 players selected by Coach Tony DiCicco to attend the five-month residency camp in Florida.
DiCicco has insisted from the beginning that the lawsuit against Dorrance, his predecessor as national team coach and an immensely popular figure with many U.S. players, had nothing to do with Keller not being invited.
“We knew we were setting ourselves up for criticism, but this has nothing to do with the lawsuit,” DiCicco told the Chicago Tribune when camp opened in January.
On Thursday, he reiterated that stance in the strongest possible terms, while at the same time leaving the door slightly ajar.
Keller, he said, has been invited into the camp this week “to train for a week and to try to prove that she needs to be here on a regular basis.
“So we haven’t given up on Debbie. She’s in our pool. If she can help us win the World Cup, she will be on the team.”
Regardless of the merits of the suit--and this is not the place to either discuss or debate them--the women’s team finds itself in an awkward position.
If Keller does not make the final roster of 20 when DiCicco and assistant coaches Lauren Gregg and Jay Hoffman select the World Cup team in May, many will believe it was only because of the lawsuit and was a vindictive response by U.S. Soccer.
On the other hand, if she is chosen, another forward will have to be left out and the balance and chemistry of the team might be upset. The squad is solidly focused on reclaiming the world championship it won in 1991, then lost in 1995, but players have differing opinions on whether Keller deserves to be included.
DiCicco said chemistry does not enter the equation.
“Debbie Keller is a very talented player, but there are a lot of very talented players who didn’t get invited into residency,” he said. “The reason she was not invited doesn’t have anything to do with chemistry. It was about where we think she is with her game and where we think it will be down the road. It’s one of those difficult decisions. But she’s a very good player.”
The problem is, the U.S. is blessed with more top-flight forwards than it can use. Hamm, Milbrett and Kristine Lilly are the likely World Cup starters, the new “triple-edged sword” replacing the 1991 trio of Michelle Akers, April Heinrichs and Carin Jennings Gabarra.
The first forward off the bench is likely to be 1996 Olympic star Shannon MacMillan, and behind her, also fighting for their places, are Cindy Parlow, Danielle Fotopoulos and Susan Bush.
Parlow and Fotopoulos are each 5 feet 11, compared to Keller’s 5-4, and their height gives the U.S. an added aerial weapon. Bush, only 18, is seen as the next Hamm, although her chance is more likely to come in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games or the 2003 World Cup.
So that leaves Keller, of Naperville, Ill., fighting the odds. She has played 46 games for the national team since her debut in 1995 and played in the World Cup that summer in Sweden, scoring a vital goal against Australia.
But she has started only 14 of those 46 games, something DiCicco sees as a negative, despite her career totals of 18 goals and seven assists.
“She hasn’t established herself as a starter,” he said, “So we have to look and say, ‘What if we give Danielle Fotopoulos or one of these other young players that same opportunity? Will they, in fact, become a starter and a key player on the team?’ ”
Keller, who turns 24 next month, has been silent since the suit was filed, allowing her attorneys to do the talking. But, in a purely soccer sense, she must be saddened by the knowledge that she will likely miss the chance to play in this world championship, especially since a foot injury also kept her off the gold medal-winning Olympic team in ’96.
RECOVERY ROAD
Michelle Akers wants Linda Medalen to know she bears no grudge, even though it was the Norwegian defender’s head that slammed into Akers’ cheek, fracturing the orbital bone, during the United States’ game against the FIFA World All-Stars two weeks ago in San Jose.
“I’ve definitely seen better days,” the U.S. midfielder said, “but my face is healing up. I saw the doctor on Tuesday and he asked me to come in for a reevaluation. Hopefully, the swelling will have gone down enough and he’ll be able to give me some more answers as far as the extent of the damage and whether I will need surgery.
“Either way, if I have surgery or not, that won’t delay my return to the field, which we’ve posted as late March.”
Akers, 33, the only active player left from the first American women’s team in 1985, could make her return when the U.S. plays Mexico at the Rose Bowl on March 28.
Meanwhile, her injury is eerily similar to one she suffered in the 1995 World Cup, when she was flattened in a collision early in the U.S. team’s opening game against China and missed the next three matches.
“Once I got my brain going again, I did [flash back to ‘95],” she said. “My dad was in the stands and my stepmom commented to him, ‘Well, at least she made it 18 minutes this time instead of five.’ ”
SYDNEY 2000
World Cup ’99 will provide the teams for the Sydney Olympic Games, and FIFA on Thursday announced its tie-breaker rules.
If the eight quarterfinalists include Olympic host Australia, then all eight qualify. If Australia does not make the quarterfinals, then the four semifinalists and the three losing quarterfinalists with the best record according to a seven-point formula will advance to the Olympics, along with Australia.
According to Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, the International Olympic Committee appears willing to increase the women’s field to 12 teams for the Athens 2004 Games.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
U.S. Road to the World Cup
*--*
Date Opponent Site Result Jan. 27 Portugal Orlando, Fla. Won, 7-0. Jan. 30 Portugal Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Won, 6-0. Feb. 14 FIFA All-Stars San Jose Lost, 2-1. Feb. 24 Finland Orlando, Fla. Won, 3-1. Feb. 27 Finland Tampa, Fla. Won, 2-0.
*--*
*--*
Date Opponent Site March 14 Sweden Algarve Cup, Portugal. March 16 Finland Algarve Cup, Portugal. March 18 Norway Algarve Cup, Portugal. March 20 Medal game Algarve Cup, Portugal. March 28 Mexico Rose Bowl, Pasadena. April 22 China Hershey Park, Hershey, Pa. April 25 China Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J. April 29 Japan Ericsson Stadium, Charlotte, N.C. May 2 Japan Dekalb Memorial Stadium, Atlanta. May 13 Netherlands Uihlein Soccer Park, Milwaukee. May 13 Netherlands Soldier Field, Chicago. May 22 Brazil TBA. June 6 Canada Civic Stadium, Portland, Ore. June 19 Denmark* Giants Stadium, East Rutherford. June 24 Nigeria* Soldier Field, Chicago. June 27 North Korea* Foxboro Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
*--*
*--World Cup first round.
