Jon Kempin is out of his comfort zone, and that's right where he wants to be.
Sporting Kansas City's young Homegrown keeper, now on loan to the NASL's San Antonio Scorpions, wants to represent the US at the 2016 Olympics and also hopes to get called back to the full national team camp after getting his first call-up in January from US coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
To do that, he says – and to keep growing as a player – he needs to play as much as possible and to test himself in unfamiliar situations.
“One of the main conversations I had with Jurgen and also Andy Herzog, his assistant and now the head coach of the 23s, was that they don't want me sitting on the bench,” Kempin told MLSsoccer.com by phone on Wednesday. “They don't think that's beneficial to me. Yeah, you're on the bench and you're traveling with the first team, but in order for me to keep getting called in, one of the things they stressed was getting games.
Klinsmann already had shown himself willing to call up and use a player from the second-tier NASL, when he capped Minnesota United FC's Miguel Ibarra multiple times in the past several months, but Kempin wanted to make sure that not being with his MLS club wouldn't hurt him.
“I said, 'Is going on loan to a USL or NASL team fine? Are you guys OK with that?' And they said, 'Absolutely.' They just want me getting games and learning and developing.”
That's what Sporting want as well, goalkeeping coach John Pascarella told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday.
“The most important thing for him is to have games,” Pascarella said. “We don't want to have a situation where he comes back to us at some point in time, and he hasn't played. So the more games, the better.”
The 21-year-old Kempin made five appearances across all competitions for Sporting last season, with four starts, and another 13 USL PRO appearances while on loan to affiliate Oklahoma City Energy.
“Hopefully, he can get another 15 to 25 games this year,” Pascarella said. “San Antonio's a tough place. They're a good club. They've got high expectations. They've got a good crowd. They've got a winning tradition now. So there's a little bit of pressure on him to perform, and that's good for him. That's what we need for him.”
San Antonio are coming off a strong showing in 2014, finishing third in the NASL's spring season and then winning the fall season and the postseason playoff. That's no small accomplishment, Kempin said.
“Second division, people maybe think it's not that great,” he said. “But look at some of the players that are here. It's a good league.”
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While Kempin was loaned to the Scorpions with the expectation that he would be their No. 1 from the outset, Sporting manager Peter Vermes told reporters on Tuesday he will have to continue to earn that job in new and demanding surroundings.
“He's not going to be in a place where he knows a bunch of people, and he feels comfortable from that point of view,” Vermes said. “He's going to have to go make his bones with a bunch of new guys, and I think that's very healthy for him.”
Kempin agreed, saying it was time for him to move out from under the wing of longtime mentor Jimmy Nielsen, who won the 2013 MLS Cup title in goal for Sporting and then retired to become the coach of the Energy for their expansion season in 2014.
“Obviously, it was great working with Jimmy when he was at Sporting, and he's one of my best friends,” Kempin said. “But once he left, it was sort of time for me to take the next step. That was working with him and learning from him as a coach. But now that I'm with another club and not with him at all, I kind of have to take the next step again and grow up and mature as a player and find out what works for me on my own.”
Still, Kempin remains close to Nielsen, who has long referred to the younger keeper as “the son I never had.”
“We still talk a lot,” Kempin said. “We talk all the time, probably a couple of times a week. If I do have questions, I can still ask him, obviously. So I'm still learning from him, and everything I've learned, I'm still thinking about.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
