Soccer: RSL's Seitz set on Beijing start

Stars Soccer News
Fri Jul 11, 2008
By: Reynaldo Lopez

Chris Seitz was not exactly a prodigy. Growing up in the soccer hotbed of Southern California, the Real Salt Lake goalkeeper was just another of the thousands of children running around the field, unspectacular to the point that he was told the only way he could make a local club team was if he agreed to be the back-up goalkeeper - the deep right-fielder of the soccer world. "So I took the job," he recalled, "and went with that." A long way, it turns out.

Years later, the 21-year-old Seitz is on the verge of an historic accomplishment, making the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2008 Beijing Games in China. Actually, Seitz making the team is hardly in question; what's unknown is whether he will be the starting goalkeeper, or whether coach Peter Nowak will use one of the three "over-age" roster spots available to bring in a veteran for that position. "If they do, it's all right," Seitz said. "I just have to work hard and do the best that I can.

. . . I have no idea which direction they're going." His personal trajectory is far more obvious. Though several other RSL players also could make the Olympic team when it's named next week - striker Robbie Findley and midfielder Nathan Sturgis also played on the under-23 team during qualifying for the Olympics, and defender Tony Beltran was called in for a recent international tournament - Seitz is the one most frequently viewed as the superstar in the making. "He's very intimidating," said striker Jozy Altidore, the former New York Red Bulls star who recently completed a transfer to Villareal of La Liga in Spain and figures to join Seitz on the Olympic team. "When you look up, look ahead and see that's the guy you have to score against, it's like, 'Ah, it's going to be a tough day.' "

At 6 -foot-3 and 235 pounds, Seitz has the ideal size for a goalkeeper, as well as increasingly strong instincts. Coaches and teammates at RSL said Seitz is an exceptional communicator and was overlooked at a younger age simply because he was a late bloomer. "It took my awhile to get going, to understand everything," Seitz said. "Once that happened, it all started clicking." Indeed, Seitz did not take the most glamorous route to the U-23 national team that comprises the Olympic team. He was never invited to the heralded U.S. Soccer under-17 residency program, for example, like future stars such as Landon Donovan, Freddy Adu, DaMarcus Beasley, Eddie Johnson, Altidore and Sturgis. Instead, he began playing youth soccer when he was 9 years old and worked his way through the club ranks, taking "pretty much every step you could." He became good enough to make local Olympic development teams, but not much more.

So he and his family sought out goalkeeping coach Ian Feuer, a prominent former professional and 1992 U.S. Olympian who's now the goalkeepers coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy, for some personal instruction. "When I first got him, he played really small," Feuer recalled. Yet after some time working with Feuer on his technique and mentality, Seitz finally began attracting serious attention and earning invitations to youth national team camps when he was a junior at Thousand Oaks High School, where he also was a placekicker on a state championship football team as a freshman. "I knew that if we could just get some of the rough edges off," Seitz could flourish, Feuer said. But "he wouldn't be where he's at if he didn't work. . . . I only gave him the book to read. Chris read the book." After that, everything started to fall into place.

Seitz became an All-American keeper at Maryland, where he was 28-5-3 with a 0.75 goals-against average in two seasons, leading the Terps to the NCAA College Cup championship as a freshman. He left school to become the No. 4 pick of the 2007 MLS SuperDraft, led the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup last summer, and has been working simultaneously with RSL and his youth national teams ever since. "He's looking more and more mature," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "He's not looking like a goalkeeper that makes a lot of rash decisions. At the beginning of last season, I really felt like he was a little bit too eager in making some poor game-time decisions, tactical decisions, and now he looks like he's learning and not making those types of errors anymore." While Seitz does play in the occasional RSL reserve games, he has not played a league game for the senior team all season, after making just three appearances behind veteran starter Nick Rimando as a rookie last year.

He acknowledged that it's "kind of tough" to sharpen his skills in that environment, but said it helps that he has enjoyed frequent call-ups to the under-23 team and even the full national team. "Every time I go in, they tell me keep working, keep doing the things you're doing," he said. Rimando said it's an "honor" to have the chance to work with Seitz, especially because "he listens, he learns, he keeps his mouth shut and he works hard. . . . He's the next big thing." Seitz knows it, too, and hopes he gets to put himself on display at the Olympics, the most prestigious event in his sport outside of the World Cup. "Everyone told me that I had the potential," he said. "It was just a matter of what I wanted to do with it. . . . I have the size, I have everything. It's just that I have to be mentally strong and go with it, learn every day. Take everything you can, from everyone, and use it."

Stars News Communication Dept.

Chris Seitz, goalkeeper

* Led U.S. into the quarterfinals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup last year.

* Joined Real Salt Lake as the No. 4 overall pick of the 2007 MLS SuperDraft.

* Led Maryland to the NCAA College Cup championship in his freshman season.

* Two-time Parade All-American at Thousand Oaks High School in California.