Sommer: Experience the key for Americans

In his heyday, Juergen Sommer was an NCAA championship goalkeeper and played with two U.S. World Cup teams.

After a professional playing career spanning 10 years and two countries, Sommer has had a front-row seat to watch the ascent of American soccer and he knows he has played a role in its growing popularity.

Now the part-time Naples resident spends time in Indianapolis, where he has coached his U-17 club team to a state championship.

"I wouldn't consider soccer a mainstream sport in America, but it's growing," he said.

Sommer helped kick off an era that is becoming known as the golden age of American soccer, competing with the likes of Tab Ramos, Marcel Balboa and John Harkes.

"It was great to be there when we got our big win against Trinidad and Tobago," referring to a 3-1 result in 1990 prior to that year's World Cup finals. "I think that's what took U.S. soccer from a mom-and-pop organization to a multimillion-dollar program."

Along with the evolution of U.S. soccer as an organization came the development of its young talent as well. Much fanfare has been given to Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu and Bobby Convey — players who were hand-selected in their youth soccer days to eat, sleep, breathe and live soccer together in Bradenton. However, Sommer sees experience as the key for the USA's cup chances this year.

"A lot of these guys are more experienced than the national teams I played on were," he said. "A lot of our guys are used to playing on European soil and in front of huge crowds."

Sommer also thinks the youthful, sometimes brash attitude of the next generation of American footballers is a good thing.

"It's great to see the adventurous spirit of these younger guys," he said. "These guys that aren't already playing in Europe now have a strong domestic league in the MLS, and are getting competitive."

Playing in what could be their final World Cup, Kasey Keller (36), Claudio Reyna (32), Brian McBride (33) and Eddie Pope (32) are the players with the most seasoning on the roster, logging more than 370 international matches combined.

The U.S. will face off against the Czech Republic today at noon, the first in their matches against the "group of death." They will play Italy on Saturday and Ghana next Thursday. The Americans, ranked fifth internationally, take on a Czech team ranked second in the world behind only Brazil. Italy is 14th.

"It's hard because we could have been put into a couple of other groups," Sommer said. "The Czechs are a difficult first match."

If the U.S. advances, it will be the second consecutive advance to the World Cup's quarterfinal round. The Americans lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the last tournament.