Former UCLA player Nick Rimando named to US World Cup roster
By Chris Kalra
May 22, 2014 6:14 p.m.
Former UCLA men’s soccer player Nick Rimando was named to the U.S. men’s national team World Cup roster Thursday.
Fifteen years into his professional career, the goalkeeper will make his first-ever World Cup appearance this summer.
Rimando competed for the Bruins from 1997 to 1999, earning All-American honors in just his second season. His career college goals-allowed average of 0.67 ranks second all-time in the Bruin record books. Afterward, he joined the MLS landscape, where he has played in for the past 15 years.
Thus far, Rimando’s had 14 caps for the U.S. men’s national team and started two matches this year. Perhaps his most noteworthy stretch of play with the national team came during the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
He started five of six matches in goal, never once allowing more than one goal in a game as the U.S. captured its fifth Gold Cup title.
Rimando’s upcoming World Cup appearance will mean that at least one former UCLA soccer player has competed in the last six World Cups, and 15 players in all have done so in that span. He will be one of three goalkeepers on the U.S. men’s national team tournament roster.
World Cup play for the U.S. begins June 16 against Ghana.
Compiled by Chris Kalra, Bruin Sports senior staff.
