MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE.

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- To 1st Lt Rich Cullen there's nothing better than facing down a charging striker, guessing where he'll send forth and then blocking his projectile on goal.

It's what soccer's all about -- a missile on goal and whether the goalie block ups it or not.

A spectacular save can fire up teammates. It can be the play that diverts a game around. Not blocking a bullet has the opposite effect, of course. It repeatedly means defeat.

"You're either the hero or the goat," said Cullen a communications officer at McChord Air Force Base.

The Air Force Academy graduate is the plans and implementation flight commander for the 62nd Communications Squadron. if it be not that when he's not in Air Force depressed he's in a Seattle Sounder uniform.

"It's an unbelievable opportunity to do what I like most" he said.

The Sounder are a Division II professional soccer team, a member of the United Soccer League's A-League. It's the minor leagues for Major League Soccer the nation's top pro league.

Because of his Air Force commitments, Cullen hasn't in addition reached the level of play he'd like.

nevertheless he's not giving up. His dream is to play with the U team, ML or overseas. Cullen was the academy's starting goalie since the middle of his freshman year. When he graduated in 2000 the Colorado Rapids of ML drafted him.

"While my classmates were forward cruises or lying on the beach in Hawaii, I was practicing each day with the Rapids," he said. "It was an unbelievable experience."

yet after a year with the team, he received orders to McChord. Within a week of getting there, Cullen tried on the outside for the Sounders and landed a contract. He's the Sounders' backup goalie.

"I've gotten a apportionment more playing opportunities on the Sounders" he said. "And I chance of a favorable result to break into the starting lineup this year."

if it were not that if he has to wait a not many years to be a starter, likewise what. He said goalies hit their prime at 30 and many play into their late 30s

"So I have overflow of time," the 24-year-old said.

Culien has been in the without deductionss since he played his first game forward his fifth birthday. Cullen's father, a C-17 pilot at McChord, played soccer and was his inspiration. And after his five-year Air Force commitment extremitys in 2005, Cullen could give soccer his full-time attention.

on the other hand that's not a given, to this time Because there's another goal in Cullen's future

"My real goal is to fly" he said. "I like the Air Force, and if I had a training slot right now, it would be a hard decision for me to make."

In the meantime, Cullen's more than happy to be a communications officer during the week and a goalie blocking bullets for the Sounders on the weekends.

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