Casey: Mighty valuable to U.S. attack

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When you stand before Conor Casey in person, he looks much bigger than his listed 6-foot-1, 170 pounds. He looks taller, more rugged, and a heck of a lot older than 22 years old. He's probably closer to 6-3, 190 than anything. In fact, he makes Brian McBride, who is listed as being the exact same height and weight as Casey, look smaller than ever.

Yet, when you watch Casey in training, he doesn't look nearly as large.

Maybe that's because one minute, he's skillfully trapping a ball sent from 30 yards away by lifting his knee up to his armpit while carefully leaping at the precise moment the ball hits his right foot to further cushion the ball, and the next minute he's sliding into an ambitious through-ball to re-direct the pass just enough so it beats Kasey Keller during a 6 v. 6 exercise.

It's that same type of finesse that was seen last week when he expertly flicked a pass from Claudio Reyna with the outside of his foot to slip McBride through three defenders to score one of the U.S. National Team's four goals against Honduras at Gillette Stadium on June 2.

And it's the same type of eye-opening play that suddenly has him a part of Bruce Arena's A-squad that will take on Grenada at Crew Stadium this Sunday in the first qualifier for the 2006 World Cup.

After never registering a cap for the U.S. before 2004, the Gilpin, Colo., native has started the last three matches for the National Team, and has impressed in each match, as the 52nd different player to receive his first cap under Arena since he took over the job in 1998.

In the first two matches against Poland in March and versus Mexico in May, he started up top alongside Josh Wolff. Against Honduras, he got the call to lineup next to McBride, giving the U.S. two strong and powerful forwards to play through.

It's an experiment that went extremely well, and is expected to continue against Grenada, as the twosome played several minutes together in the National Team's closed-door 3-1 victory over the Columbus Crew on Wednesday.

"It was good to see him and Brian play together," said Arena referring to the Honduras match while addressing the media after Thursday's training session at Ohio State University. "They did well."

Having Casey play up top doesn't seat McBride from his usual target striker role. It merely gives the U.S. side another strong aerial presence in the box as well as a withdrawn forward who can both playmake and create his own shots.

"I like it a lot," said McBride, whose two goals against Honduras now gives him 25 in his National Team career which ranks second all-time. "Conor played extremely well against Honduras. He moves off the ball well, has great feet, and is able to hold the ball. He's also good in the air, which takes some of the pounding away from me. It's a good combination. We can run off each other and he is a good passer of the ball. He's got so many great attributes that he's gonna have a great career."

Since McBride has 11 years on Casey, the former University of Portland All-American admits that he's followed him throughout his career and has partly modeled his game after him.

"He has been the forward for so many years," said Casey. "He's my size, and strong in the air like me, so to be able to play with a player like him is really something great. I think we communicated well. For me, it was extremely fun, and also easy because I always knew where he was going to be and he was talking a lot."

Arena said he likes the fact that Casey is able to use his strength to hold the ball up top, as well as occupy one or two defenders and move well in front of the goal. If anything, the U.S. manager is being careful with Casey since he, as Arena put it, "played an insane schedule" while he was on loan at Karlsruhe from Borussia Dortmund playing in the German Second Division this past season.

"When you're not in the top division, you play more games," said Arena. "And it's really rugged. He's probably a little worn out."

Casey said that's not the case at all, even after playing in close to 40 overall matches this season, in which he scored 14 goals.

"I feel good right now, really," he said. "I'm rested."

Part of that rest is probably piece of mind since Casey recently signed with recently-promoted FSV Mainz 05 of the German Bundesliga, which came after receiving interest from what he refers to as "few from the First Division and a handful from the Second Division."

It's a signing that now gives the U.S. roster four players - Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Clint Mathis (Hannover 96), Tony Sanneh (F.C. Nurnberg) and Casey - in the vaunted Bundesliga, and in a country that Casey has grown to embrace since he made the move in 2000 after performing well for the U.S. at the Sydney Olympics.

"It's a combination of things that I like, not just one thing," said Casey, who admitted he didn't look at coming home to play in Major League Soccer before signing with Mainz. "The lifestyle, in general, has helped me as a player. I'm over there to do one thing, and that's to play. Each and every day, that's what I'm doing. That's the reason I am there. And I've benefited from that mindset."

It's also helped him keep his head during a time when several American players are antsy wondering if and when Arena will call them in during World Cup qualifying. He also knows that he can't take anything for granted, considering players such as Wolff and Taylor Twellman will be getting future call-ups in addition to the forwards on the roster for this match.

"I'm here," he said. "So I know, at least at this point, I am in the mix. But I think you have to play well in practice and in every game all the time. That's something I've learned since being in Europe. You have to show well every chance you get. I just know that I'm really excited. To qualify for a World Cup is huge. And the first step is this weekend.

"I'm just looking forward to the game."

And perhaps his fourth start in four matches.

Marc Connolly covers American soccer for ESPN Soccernet.com. He can be reached at: shaketiller10@yahoo.com.