USMNT legend Brad Friedel discusses USA-Mexico rivalry, player development, goalkeeping, & more

IN THE WORLD of American Soccer, Brad Friedel needs no introduction as he is one of the country’s most accomplished players of all time who has also played in many of the national team’s biggest wins. On Friday, he will be watching eagerly as the U.S. team hosts Mexico in his native Ohio for an important World Cup qualifier.

Friedel, 50, has a long string of accomplishments – both on individual and team levels for club and country. He has played over 450 games in the Premier League for Liverpool, Blackburn, Aston Villa, and Tottenham. He won the Turkish Cup with Galatasaray and won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year playing for the Columbus Crew in the early days of the league.

For the national team, his performance at the 2002 World Cup propelled the team to a run to the quarterfinals. Along the way, he made critical saves in wins over Portugal and Mexico, and a penalty save in a draw against South Korea. He finished with 87 caps and was named U.S. Soccer’s Athlete of the Year in 2002.

Following his playing career, he has served as a television commentator as well as a head coach of both the U.S. U-19 national team and the New England Revolution. 

In 2018 Fridel was inducted into U.S. Soccer’s Hall of Fame. 

Friedel, spoke to American Soccer Now, in association with sports betting site Betway US, about his thoughts on the iconic rivalry between the U.S. national team and Mexico, the goalkeeping situation, youth development and much more.

Brian Sciaretta for ASN: You’ve played probably the two biggest USA-Mexico games in history – the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal win and the iconic 2001 World Cup qualifier win which introduced the rivalry to the city of Columbus where the U.S. team actually had home field advantage against El Tri. How has the rivalry changed from then until now?

FRIEDEL: It’s changed because I think most, or all, of the time until you got to the early 2000s, we were usually the underdog, both home and away – not massively, but we were. And we always fought hard against them, but I think most people thought that they were better than us. I think that has changed now. I think most people, especially when we play in the US, most people think that not only will we win or we could we win, but we will win. I think most people think that we will play better than Mexico as well, especially in the U.S. That dynamic has changed a little bit.

As far as the rivalry, that hasn’t changed at all. It’s the main thing the players look for with regards to Gold Cup. It’s the main match-up that players look for with regards to qualifying  – if you can get three points off Mexico home or away, it puts you in an in an unbelievable place for qualification and you’ve taken three points off your main rival. The history of the two sides, the succession of 2-0 matches, no matter what city we used to try to play Mexico in, it was an away match. Now, that’s not the case anymore. And when we play on home soil, especially if we choose the right stadium, it’s a very pro-U.S. crowd.

All things are fantastic. It’s one of those games, if you’re playing club soccer, it’s as close to a local derby matches you can get. And you know, the nerves are a little bit higher. The anxiousness is a little bit more. The anticipation of the game is a little bit – there’s a little bit more. Everything is ramped up just a little bit more than any of the other CONCACAF qualifiers.

ASN: Are you sad to see the rivalry leave Columbus? Or are still happy it’s in Ohio?

FRIEDEL:  I mean, it was such a long run of two-nil’s. Isn’t’ that weird? I’m a little bit… I guess I always imagined that every time that a game would be played against Mexico, especially in qualifying, it would be in Columbus. But so be it. I mean, I guess things have to change sometimes. But that was a nice little side note to the matches for me personally, being from Ohio.

ASN: They go into this game with the goalkeeping situation in a situation in flux. I know you’re not completely unfamiliar with this type of situation because back in 2002 it was not settled if it was going to be you or Kasey Keller start. Right now, we don’t know who the number one goalkeeper is heading into games. You have Matt Turner and Zack Steffen with strong cases. Discuss how you see this situation in terms of two the goalkeepers. They’re very different. Also, is it tough for the team to not know who is going to be in net heading into camp?

FRIEDEL:  I’ll answer the last question first. I don’t think it’s hard for the team because they’re both exceptionally good goalkeepers. Whichever keeper they’re going to have behind them, it’ll be fine. What I would say is that if Zack plays, he’s a bit bolder and a bit better with his feet than Matt is. He played in Gregg’s system in Columbus, which emphasized playing out of the back, which is what Gregg wants to do.

Matt, on the other hand, is a better out and out shot stopper than Zack. He’s up there with the very best. I was with him in New England and saw the ability to save shots. He is superb, really. I would say Matt has the edge in another kind of category because he’s playing regular first team football and Zach is.

However, Zach gets to train and play with the actual world’s best on a day to day basis. How much does the lack of game time really affect him? I don’t know because he’s being coached by arguably the world’s best coach and he has an array of talent that he sees every day that is arguably the best in the world also.

It’s a really difficult decision for Gregg to make. I don’t envy it at all. And I’ll just I’ll end it with: he’s not going to make a mistake by playing either one because they’re both exceptional. They’re both exceptionally gifted goalkeepers.

ASN: Earlier this summer, Gregg said they needed to get younger in the goalkeeping position. This year people thought David Ochoa was going to be the next young U.S. keeper, but he left for Mexico after being on the Nation’s League roster. Now, Chicago’s Gaga Slonina, 17, is getting a lot of accolades for his season. What do you see from the younger generation of goalkeepers? There’s been a bit of a gap.

FRIEDEL:  [Slonina] is getting a lot of press. Actually, I think Chicago has a better goalkeeper than Slonina in Chris Brady, who is the same age.  The Chicago Fire has the two best goalkeepers in the country at this age in Slonina and Chris Brady. That holds them in good ground on the on the young side of things with regards to who can come up through the ranks in the U.S.

Sometimes you just get gaps. There was probably a little gap when it was me, Kasey, and Juergen [Sommer]. There may have been a little gap after that because we all played for so long. I think that happens. Tim [Howard] played a long time and Brad Guzan is still playing… Sometimes when you have incumbents that play so long, you don’t get the opportunity to nurture the young ones in and give them game time. Maybe that’s why there’s some gaps sometimes as well. Zack is not old and Matt Turner is not old. You probably have those guys, if they stay fully fit… you could have them another eight years, 10 years depending on their fitness. Sometimes it’s really hard to bring in that next young guy in when you have the experienced goalkeeper that’s playing so well and it’s such a high level. I wouldn’t be too worried about where the young goalkeepers are at right now. I think there’s a couple of quality 17 and 18 year old’s coming up, and I think there are enough goalkeepers that Gregg has to choose from right now that can have a very good competition for places going through World Cup qualifying and the World Cup itself

ASN: One of the big themes we’re seeing, versus your time with the national team, this younger generation has put themselves in great situations with their clubs. There are a lot of Champions League players – more than we’ve ever had as a country and they’re all at young ages. What do you think are some of the factors that have helped this younger generation? Has it been the improvement in MLS academies and the selling philosophy – for players like Brenden Aaronson, and Tyler Adams. Is it just an improved visibility of the sport along with more opportunities? It’s probably a combination but how do you think the current generation of American players have been doing so well – at least at a club level?

FRIEDEL:  I think this is an easy one to answer. I hope it’s not too long winded. But there’s a lot of credit to Tab Ramos when he was the youth technical director and U-20 head coach, Jay Berhalter and Tony Lepore for doing something that no other country really has to do, and that is fully fund a U.S. development academy. And the reason was because MLS teams who are doing it now, they weren’t doing it, and it shouldn’t be for a federation to run a developmental league around the country. They should govern the rules and do the coaching courses and things like that, but they shouldn’t have to fully fund a developmental program.

But because the MLS teams weren’t doing that, they took charge of it and did it. And then they started it and people could say whatever they wanted about it, they could pick the bones of it and the system and everything. However, it helped this generation of players coming through more than people thought at the time, and you can see that by the type of quality that’s being developed now.

It allowed for scouts from Europe to come to the events and look at players for the first time in our history. They had a lot of people that were very interested in coming in and looking at the US players. There was a lot of funding. We had coaches of U-20, U-19, U-18, U-17, U-16, U-15 and U-14 and we traveled the globe playing in tournaments. First of all, we could get our players playing against the best competition globally. Second there were a lot of scouts at these tournaments.

All of a sudden, people started seeing these young American players. Then having MLS academies started to get better and better. And now they’ve taken over the Developmental Academy league, which is which is fantastic. And it just keeps everything growing in the US, and it’s getting better and better. I think the early stages and a lot of this credit needs to go back to U.S. soccer and the Tab Ramos when he was in charge for persevering through – I’m sure a lot of spent money on the development of these players. I shouldn’t say lost, I should say invested money on a lot of these players in the developmental league and put the U.S development system on a path for success. And that’s where it all started. A lot of these players that you’re seeing perform today came through that system.

ASN: Tell us about your career now and how you are still involved in the game

FRIEDEL:  I opened a U.S. office for Promoesport, I’m an agent right now and my main market is looking at MLS and then collaborating with my contacts in Europe… We have offices all over the world. That is what I am doing now in the game.