Keller and Ljungberg Remember Chelsea

Maybe It’s Because they were Londoners

July 17

Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller is most famous on this side of the pond for his heroics in the US goal, but over there, Kasey is fondly remembered for stints at three very different London clubs. Kasey played 178 games for South East London’s Millwall over a four year period between 1992 and 1996. Millwall were shall we say, a club with a tough reputation especially among the support, who regularly made the news headlines for the wrong reasons, match day trouble and right-wing infiltration. From a tough working class part of London’s Docklands area, they drew their support mostly from the surrounding area.

After stints at Leicester and Rayo Vallecano, a suburb of Madrid known for being very far left in its political leanings, Kasey returned to London to play for Tottenham Hotspur (the Spurs). Spurs are a bigger club than Millwall and despite years of underachievement on the pitch, have retained a very large core support and bar one year have been ever presents in the top division recently, without ever coming close to winning it. Despite Tottenham’s geographical location in North London, Chelsea gradually became their strongest rivals, perhaps after near North London neighbours Arsenal.

After two years in Germany, where he achieved legend status at Borussia Mönchengladbach both for his goalkeeping and his singing, Kasey resurfaced at Chelsea’s close neighbours Fulham. Fulham are a club of a different nature, known for being a friendly family club, whose support has developed (and generally needed) a great sense of humour. Their fanzine is called “There’s Only One F in Fulham”. Try getting that on a scarf into Qwest Field.

All three clubs have one thing in common, a strong rivalry with our guests tomorrow, Chelsea FC. Incidentally Kasey’s other English club, Leicester City, are so disliked by Chelsea fans, they get a special mention in a Chelsea song, which is unusual for a non-London club.

So when we asked Kasey what his favourite memory of playing against Chelsea was, he was spoilt for choice.

“I have a bunch of Chelsea memories. One of them is when I was at Millwall. We beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the fourth round of the FA Cup, where I saved the 5th penalty in a shoot out, so that was kind of nice. I’ve faced Chelsea eight, ten maybe even twelve times, something like that.”

This game was played on February 8, 1995 where his heroics in a FA Cup tie saw Millwall eliminate Chelsea from the cup in a replay, having drawn at Millwall nine days before.

Of playing at Stamford Bridge, he says, “Stamford Bridge..it’s alright, it’s changed over the years, went from being not the best crowd to what you see now. They are still trying to keep a little of their identity, but at the same time they have changed so much as a club, you know, it’s a good stadium now.”

Swede Dreams are Made of This

Freddie Ljungberg isn’t exactly singing the Blues either when asked his memories of London derbies for Arsenal against them.

“We beat them quite a few times,” said the former Gunners player smiling. “One was in the 2002 FA cup final. I scored the winning goal against them. Quite nice guys, they have changed now and again but normally they are quite nice guys.”

He was coy about whether he’d be happy to showcase his new home town to his former opponents.

“Of course I played with Ashley (Cole) with quite awhile and played against Terry against him a lot of times, they are very good players and nice guys on the team. Going out to dinner with them? We’ll see what happens, if Arsenal fans find out, I could be in trouble.”

See Freddie’s 2002 FA Cup Goal

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