Almanack: Keepers kept waiting

LAST week the US football team's general manager Bill Nuttall and goalkeeping coach Milutin Soskic flew in to check the fitness of Roy Wegerle, and the form of John Harkes, the goalkeepers Kasey Keller and Jurgen Sommer, and the West Ham defender Steve Potts.

Potts, who was born in Hartford, Connecticut, is a former England youth international - but this would not prevent him turning out for the US. Almanack's man pursued the matter. 'It's still not too late for Potts to make the squad,' Bill Nuttall admitted. 'Bora Milutinovic, the manager, is aware of him and he may yet feature in our plans.'

The visitors watched Keller and Sommer let in two apiece at the New Den on Wednesday, but the keepers are no closer to knowing which of them will make it into the squad with Tony Meola and Brad Friedel.

Keller finds the management's taciturnity a little frustrating. 'The problem lately,' the Millwall keeper told our man, 'is that all of us in England have been kept in the dark.' The nightmare scenario that Keller and Harkes particularly fear is jet-lag from flying to the US for final trials between play-off games. 'Bora must have some idea by now,' Keller said, 'and I just wish he'd let us know his plans.' The suffering may go on until 3 June when the US squad is due to be announced.