That shutout prevented Atletico from winning the group. There is no reason to think they let this one slide. He shut out a top 10 team in the entire world. That's gotta feel good. Until Steffan does that, the door is more than open.
These CL performances are gonna pay off huge for him in a year or so when he makes the move to top 4 league.
Before he joined Molde he had a series of training stints in England. Gotta think the Premier League is his dream.
I kinda wonder how he compares or might turn out compared to Mathew Ryan. He's a former keeper at Brugge (spent 2 years there) and went to Valencia in La Liga and recently landed at Brighton. I believe he's been their record buy and probably best player of last season (sorry Glenn Murray). If Horvath could emulate that; i'd be delighted.
That's a really good comparison, I think. He could well follow the path of Ryan. Start for a solid middle-to-lower table EPL club within a few years. Anyway, we've got our own American version of Alisson vs. Ederson in Horvath vs. Steffen
https://www.voetbalkrant.com/nl/nie...eel-goed-gaat-met-club-brugge-doelman-horvath Interview: Philippe Vande Walle explains the resurrection of Horvath Since his return under the bar, there is no longer talk about a goalkeeper problem at Club Brugge. Ethan Horvath held the zero in the Champions League three times and Philippe Vande Walle has an explanation for that. Philippe Vande Walle himself was under the bar for ten years at Club Brugge and again what he speaks about. Now he is goalkeeper coach at Standard and he closely follows the performance of all goalkeepers in the Jupiler Pro League. Horvath did not always act very well last season and this year he started with the arrival of Letica as reserve goalkeeper. "I think he learned a lot from his first period" says Vande Walle. "He looks much calmer, much more concentrated. Horvath has never really disappointed in my opinion. " "You also see it in his communication that he now has more experience. He used to put a lot of risk in his game, now I think that these risks are more calculated. His step forward is no more than logical. By playing you build up experience and from the mistakes he made he also learned. And that is very important. I call it a positive way to gain experience. " Goalkeeper problem He is also clear about whether or not the goalkeeper problem is present. "I do not think Club Brugge should look for a 'solution'. A keeper who is new somewhere must always prove himself. See Thibaut Courtois at Real Madrid. He also had to compete first with Real Madrid and was not always faultless. Now he is there. "
A great problem to have. Easily the top two under-25 keepers in CONCACAF. One hasn't allowed a goal in 270 #UCL minutes. One just signed with Man City.Which 🇺🇸 would you want in net: Ethan Horvath or Zack Steffen?#USMNT pic.twitter.com/UE72LXWwO3— COPA90 US (@Copa90US) December 12, 2018
now if we only have Hamid/Gonzalez push themselves to have some memorable 2019 season and JK gets a move to a 2 Bundesliga/3 Bundesliga club where he can start; then we'd be really stacked.
Steffen stays in Columbus until July. https://www.massivereport.com/2018/...six-months-of-relief-mls-manchester-city-2018 So instead of going out on loan somewhere in Europe, or training with Man City, he doesn't have any matches (besides I guess now he can play at Cupcake) until MLS starts in March.
As far as MLS goes some newer guys to pay attention to that will finally have starting gigs are Marcinkowski in San Jose, Spencer Richey with expansion Cincinnati, and Zack MacMath who was recently dealt to vancouver. Hoping Edwards situation changes one way or another, as far as MLS talent goes hes too good to be sitting on the bench in Orlando. Columubus making a trade would be an obvious move after selling Steffen.
One area we looked rather weak in. Never the biggest area of concern but with just Steffen it wasn't like the old days.
Horvath would be my #1, were I calling the shots. His form over the past 6 months has been Friedel’esque.
To be fair. It's his form over the past 7 weeks. 6 months ago he was in the off-season. 4 months ago he had a new no.1 at the club. 2 months ago, he was watching this rival screw up a bunch and still start every game.
Another game, another cleansheet for King Horvath. 3 out of 7 matches in the league. His 6th in 11 matches this season. He has the 2nd highest save percentage in the league. 1 cleansheet behind Letica despite the latter having played 5 more league matches.
I think the outcome of the transfer to Man City for Steffan will have a lot to do with who comes out ahead at least in the near term. Steffan is taking a big chance. He's not likely to play for Man City, so he's signing for a club just to be an asset loaned out and shopped around. While they do have a financial interest in the player and enough connections to keep him playing somewhere, there are an awful lot of ways this could shake out poorly. If he doesn't immediately get in a good position and get some playing time while Horvath keeps starting week in and week out, he could quite quickly fall behind.
It says something that a huge club like City (one of the top 10 in the world) desires him. Even if only as a no.2. If he catches on and starts for a mid-table club in the PL or La Liga for the next 5 or 10 years; we can all be happy. It's strange though that no other PL clubs might have been interested him. Surely some would take a risk on him. The US pedigree should have been a selling factor.
Yeah, even if they see him as an undervalued payer on the market, they invested enough they expect a return, and surely they know enough about him with the clubs being related. If his next couple years look like Miazga's first couple years, he'll be in a good spot. You just never know.
Using American Soccer’s numbers and xGA estimates here’s the top 10 keepers in MLS by percentage of xGA they let in in 2018 (800 minutes minimum) Frei – 71% of xGA Hamid – 77% of xGA Robles – 83% of xGA Attinella – 86% of xGA Bush – 87% of xGA Turner – 87% of xGA Melia – 88% of xGA Willis – 89% of xGA Gonzalez – 91% of xGA Rimando – 92% of xGA Guzan and Steffen are both considerably further down the table, with %’s of xGA over 100. MLS's stats for 2018 (800 minutes minimum): Bill Hamid - 0.86 GAA, 81.0 Save% Stefan Frei - 1.03 GAA, 76.0 Save% Jeff Attinella - 1.05 GAA, 75.3 Save% Luis Robles - 0.97 GAA, 73.0 Save% Tim Melia - 1.18 GAA, 71.7 Save% Sean Johnson - 1.28 GAA, 70.9 Save% Guzan and Steffen are in the bottom third of the league. Whoscored ratings for MLS regular season (800 minutes minimum): Bill Hamid - 7.00 Steve Clark - 6.93 (composite) Luis Robles - 6.86 Jeff Attinella - 6.84 Tyler Miller - 6.83 Stefan Frei - 6.82 Evan bush - 6.82 Tim Melia - 6.81 Sean Johnson - 6.79 Guzan and Steffen are in the bottom quarter of the league. There's a pattern here - just sayin'.
To be fair, his numbers were boosted by playing 11 of 14 regular season games at home. But yes, he only let in 12 in that period with 5 shutouts. Since his XGA was less than 16, I assume AS' numbers, at least, take that into account. (These are all regular season stats.)
And I should correct an inaccuracy - when I said "bottom third of the league" or "bottom quarter of the league" I really meant among the top 23 best keepers (theoretically the best per-team, but that isn't always the case). So, worse than 14th or worse than 17th, respectively. There are actually 28 keepers that played more than 800 minutes this year. Best case, both statements still equate to being in the bottom half of the league among qualifying keepers.
Good example of how statistics can deceive. Or, you can assume all the stats are correct and pretty much every coach involved with the US team and all the scouts who were much more interested in Steffan, including the guys at Manchester City (who should know plenty about him being as his club was an affiliate) are all horribly wrong. Personally, I don't have nearly that much faith in soccer stats.