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A Goalie Speaks Up, on the Field and Off
The team’s new German goalkeeper, Rost dutifully answered questions, sometimes struggling to find the right words in English. After too many moments of needless excitement from the goalkeepers they started the Major League Soccer season with — last year’s starter, Bouna Coundoul, and Greg Sutton — and too many soft goals, the Red Bulls’ general manager and sporting director, Erik Soler, plucked the 38-year-old Rost from Hamburg of the Bundesliga. The deal, on a free transfer after Rost finished his contract, cost the Red Bulls their third designated-player slot <a href="http://www.cheapcigarettesonlineoutlet.com/buy-cheap-555-cigarettes-online-p-354"><strong>cheap 555 gold cigarettes</strong></a> in hopes of stanching the leaks of goals. That worked in Rost’s debut match, a 0-0 tie at Chivas USA on July 16, which made him the club’s fourth goalkeeper to record a shutout this season. Then came Rost’s rude baptism against the Rapids in Colorado on Wednesday, when defensive collapses and balls dancing in the mile-high altitude resulted in a 4-1 defeat. “There is no excuse for this strange day,” Rost said. “We made a lot of easy mistakes and so it was an easy win for the Denver boys. We gave them too much space in the midfield, and they could play easy balls to the forwards.” To be fair, the Red Bulls (6-5-11, 29 points) were again playing without Rafa Marquez, their Mexican international center back, who returned from a hamstring injury for the team’s 2-2 tie Saturday night against F.C. Dallas (11-5-6, 39 points) at Red Bull Arena. Teemu Tainio, the stout defensive midfielder, was unavailable Wednesday and Saturday because of injury. “He was really getting on everybody in Colorado, not just the guys in the back,” defender Tim Ream said of Rost. “He’s really loud back there; he’s easily heard. He’s much like Tim Howard when he jumps on guys and yells to get them to be a little bit sharper.” Howard, the United States national team and Everton keeper, was Ream’s teammate during last month’s Concacaf Gold Cup. Rost, 38, came to the Red Bulls and the United States “for a new lifestyle, a new experience,” after nearly 20 years in the Bundesliga. He was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, the son of Olympic medalists in team handball. His father, Peter, won a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Games, and his mother, Christina, won <a href="http://www.cheapcigarettesonlineoutlet.com/"><strong>cheap cigarettes online outlet</strong></a> a silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Games and a bronze in 1980. As a product of the East German athletic machine that was nurtured and supported by the Communist government, Rost is well aware of how his family <a href="http://www.cheapcigarettesonlineoutlet.com/555-cigarettes-c-68"><strong>555 Cigarette online sales</strong></a> benefited. “But after the wall came down, it was a complete new life,” Rost said. “Everything changed and it was a difficult time for everybody in the eastern part of Germany. “When I was in school,” he added, “sport was first, and everything else was around sport. Then it was a complete new life. Yes, East Germany is a part of my life, that is so. And when I went to play in the West, people were interested because it was a different history.” After German unification, Rost began his Bundesliga career with Werder Bremen in 1992, then moved to Schalke 04 in 2002 and on to Hamburg in 2007. In all, he played 426 matches in the league. Rost and Jens Lehmann, a former Arsenal and Germany international, are the only goalkeepers in Bundesliga history to have scored goals in open play. “First of all, he is a very good goalkeeper,” Lars Wellrodt, a sports reporter for the German newspaper Die Welt said of Rost by telephone from Berlin. “But he can also be a very critical, candid player. If he had something to say, he was very clear, which is quite unusual for a German football player. If something was wrong in the team, he wasn’t afraid to go through the media, which made him especially great for us journalists.” Early in April, Rost criticized Hamburg management for Coach Armin Veh’s departure and said he would finish his contract and move <a href="http://www.99tz.net/view.php?id=1"><strong>Articles Jam ยป Data You Will want When Purchasig Cheap G Shock Watches</strong></a> on. “It is time to start something new,” he told FIFA.com. At the time, Rost had been in discussions with Soler, a former Hamburg player. “I always said that after this season, it was enough in the Bundesliga,” Rost said. “I know Erik 10 years, and he called me six months ago. The most recent call was about a month ago and he said: ‘Come to us. We need a goalkeeper.’ It was no problem for me. It was an easy decision.” Rost is signed through the end of the current M.L.S. season but said that “everything is possible.” Coach Hans Backe said: “We wanted an experienced goalkeeper, and at the end of the day we’re happy with him. We need a goalkeeper who is very consistent all day long if we are going to pick up the right results.”
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