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Hearing from (starting keeper?) Chris Eylander

Don Ruiz - Staff writer

April 12, 2009 04:37 AM

I spoke to Sounders No. 2 keeper Chris Eylander last week, when he returned to training after suffering a preseason knee injury. And I thought maybe I'd write a few words about him this week if he was restored to the active roster.

Now there's a little more urgency to the transaction as Kasey Keller is unavailable for the big No. 1 vs. No. 2 game Saturday at Chivas after picking up a red card in last night's 1-0 loss to Kansas City.

So, I'll hustle something on Eylander into the Monday paper. Meanwhile, here's some of what he said in our interview:

On how the injury happened:

"It wasn't really a contact injury with anyone else. It was during a drill, and I just kind of landed abnormally on the turf with kind of a straight impact by me. I just did it -- kind of a weird incident."

On what he's been doing since then:

"I've been keeping pretty optimistic. The trainers have been great. I've been doing extra stuff with them and on my own to get back as quickly as possible. It's kind of a bummer, but I've been able to see a lot of progress the next few weeks."

On his Sounders experience otherwise:

"It's been terrific being part of everything so far. With the fans and everything else, I wouldn't have chosen anything different."

On learning behind Keller:

"In my opinion he's the best goalkeeper in the league. He's had so much experience and the way he plays his games, he just doesn't really make mistakes. If you're going to get a goal on him, it's going to be a nice goal. You can beat him every once in a while, but he really isn't going to give you anything. So just to see how he plays the game, the decision he makes, all of that stuff has been great."

On whether he might need to move on, since Keller isn't playing like a guy who'll need to hang them up anytime soon:

"We'll see how it goes. He doesn't look like a guy about to retire. He's still really fit and doesn't have any injuries. We'll just see how the next two years go, and if he's going to stick around here where there's going to be a point and time when I'm going to have to go elsewhere and find some games for myself. For now, I'm really happy to be a part of this and we'll see how it goes."

Then Saturday happened, and now it looks like Eylander will get an earlier-than-expected game for himself.

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