Bay legend Friedel on ballot for Hall of Fame

CHICAGO » Brad Friedel, Carlos Bocanegra and Thierry Henry are among first-year eligibles nominated for the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s class of 2018.

Also on the ballot for the first time are Juan Pablo Angel, Bobby Convey, Jay DeMerit, Stuart Holden, Eddie Johnson and Lori Lindsey.

Friedel, a 1989 Bay High School graduate, has had numerous career highlights.

While a member of the Rockets, Friedel was a three-sport athlete, playing soccer, basketball and tennis. While his clearcut best sport was soccer, he was no slouch when it came to basketball, earning third team All-Ohio honors as a senior while helping the Rockets to a fifth-place finish in the Division II AP poll.

Friedel was named Bay’s Outstanding Athlete of the Year in 1989 and was inducted into the Rockets’ Hall of Fame in 2007.

While at UCLA, Friedel led the Bruins to the 1990 NCAA championship and was selected as a first team All-American goalkeeper in 1991 and 1992 and was awarded the Hermann Trophy — given to the top player in collegiate soccer — in 1992, beating Virgina’s Claudio Reyna for the award.

After college, Friedel played for the U.S. Men’s National Team from 1992-2005 and is the fourth-most capped goalie in U.S. history. Friedel made his World Cup debut in 1998 against Yugoslavia and was the goalie for the 2002 U.S. World Cup team that advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Portugal and Mexico along the way.

Professionally, Friedel has made many stops: Galatasaray,

Columbus Crew, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur. He scored his lone professional goal with the Blackburn Rovers in 2004 against Charlton Athletic, an equalizer off a corner kick in the 90th minute.

To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a player must have played at least 20 full international games for the United States (reduced to 10 if the games were before 1990); or have played at least five seasons in an American first-division professional league and been a postseason league allstar

at least once; or played at least five seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League between the end of the NASL in 1984 and the end of the MISL in 1992, and been selected as a first-team postseason allstar in at least one of those seasons.

The Hall of Fame facility in Frisco, Texas, will open on Oct. 20-21, and will feature the induction ceremonies.

There are 32 individuals on the player ballot, nine on the veterans ballot and seven on the builders ballot.

Any player appearing on at least 66.7 percent of ballots

will earn election. Voters can select up to 10 players.

Voters for the Hall of Fame include all past and present men’s and women’s full National team coaches, all active MLS and NWSL head coaches with a minimum of four years of experience as a head coach at the highest professional level in the United States, MLS and NWSL management representatives, the MLS commissioner and NWSL executive director, U.S. Soccer secretary general, U.S. Soccer president, designated media members and all Hall of Famers.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Bay alum and United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel stops a free kick during a 2002 World Cup soccer match against South Korea.