After six months, Horvath has really adjusted supremely well for Luton. I wonder if they'll try and pick him up. I wonder the same with Steffen at Middlesbrough.
Arteta was Pep's assistant, and we know Pep kept giving Steffen the cup games even as they kept advancing... which maybe didn't work out so well in the end, but of course that was headcase Steffen not solid Turner. Didn't Pep have some quote about how he couldn't pull Steffen as that would cause problems in the locker room?
Yes. Pep Guardiola, Zack Steffen and the dilemma of the luxury back-up goalkeeper | Sporting News If you say you're going to give a guy the cup games, then you've gotta give the guy the cup games. I do think its possible that Arteta keeps going with Turner. I mean, Steffen WAS the goalkeeper for the 2020/2021 League Cup run. He was in the nets for a run of games against Bournemouth, Burnley, Arsenal, ManU, and Spurs. All wins. When we talk about goalkeepers who've LIFTED trophies in English Cup competitions, Steffen is one of them. One of the group. Tim Howard in the 2003-2004 FA Cup. Brad Friedel in the League Cup with Blackburn in 2001-2002. Kasey Keller in the League Cup with Leicester in 96-97.
By the way, maybe I'm wrong......................but I think Tim Howard is the only American in the modern era to PLAY and win the FA Cup. Regardless of position. There were some dual English-American or whatever guys waaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Chelsea has lost three FA Cup finals in a row. Pulisic has gotten close, but no cigar.
I think some podcast said Odunze was giving up some ridiculous number of goals per game, hopefully he's figuring it out though... 1612807287596322819 is not a valid tweet id
Odunze seems like one of those keepers that can make some incredibly athletic saves at times, but I'm not sure about everything else yet. We've had those kind of guys come thru MLS. A young Bill Hamid would make ridiculous saves and make you think he was going to be a USMNT stalwart for the next 15 years. Then he'd bungle how to defend a corner kick. We would have gotten to see more of Odunze if the 2021 U20 cycle wasn't cancelled. He only recently turned 20, so he's got a way to go. Could be great. Could disappear. We actually have an incredibly small success rate with keepers coming up thru English academies. And we've had plenty. Who was the recent kid at Chelsea? Oh yeah, Ethan Wady. He's now a backup keeper for Woking in the Nations League (5th Tier). Nicholas Defrietas-Hanson was at Everton in July of 2021. I'm sure we talked about him as a kid to keep an eye on here. Now plays for Atherton Collieries of the Northern Premier League (7th tier). I'm sure we could list 25 kids like that. They just disappear. Anyway, that's a roundabout way of saying............................let's wait and see with Odunze.
Chicago and US U20 keeper Chris Brady hanging out with Peter Cech. .@Brady00Chris 🤝 @PetrCech pic.twitter.com/LacuJN8A1h— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) January 13, 2023
Update:1 game 1 clean sheet for gaga📈📈📈#USMNT https://t.co/2o53uCIRkz— USMNT burner (@burnerusmnt) January 13, 2023
It was Peter Cech who reportedly identified Slonina for Chelsea as someone they had to buy. Assuming Chris Brady is the starter in Chicago this year, I could see him being on a similar Slonina path of going to Europe fairly quickly.
Well that didn’t really help Slonina when it came to going to England. The EU passport matters a ton for Spain, and to a lesser extent France and Italy (as both have exceptions that make it easier for teams to get around). And then for places like Germany and Belgium it doesn’t matter at all. Even for England the work permit has a different standard for youth players.
Boro up to 4th in the table!! Four Championship W’s in a row & a clean sheet! Have a good weekend @Boro fans #UTB pic.twitter.com/Cflf4uVfUo— Zack Steffen (@zacksteffen_) January 14, 2023
Barring the miraculous Burnley and Sheffield Utd are pulling away. Its allllll about the playoffs now and Middlesbrough and West Brom are lookin good.
Things are so close right now in the race for playoff spots. We could have yanks on all four teams with Norwich, Luton, and Sunderland right around the line too. I do wonder if Middlesbrough would try to buy Steffen if they go up.