I'm really glad he's getting the game and hope he shows well. I'd like to see him get a move elsewhere next season because I think this season was best case for Zach at City. He's gotten a good amount of games for a backup and this is a big opportunity to win something. But, no matter what he does in this and hopefully the final game, I don't see him being more than a backup at City for a very long time. The same article has Pep saying “I don’t want Zack to do what Edi does. Zack has to do what he (does). That’s all. Try to save the balls. We’re going to try to help him concede as few chances as possible.” He clearly paints Zach as more of a shot stopper who should keep it simple and Ederson the one who can play. For the US, I seem to hear how Zach isn't that great a shot stopper, but shines with distribution. That sounds like his coach sees him differently and he does seem to mishit passes with some regularity when he's been playing for the US so I'm not so sure he's wrong.
Playing with your feet out of the back vs a team like Chelski with their speed/reaction time is a pretty real challenge. Odd to go so public with it, but not a surprising assessment of Steffen from my POV. He's ok "for an American keeper" but has never looked like a burgeoning sweeper-keeper to my eye.
The passing out of the back from a goal kick trend won’t last forever. The amount of goals conceded from it is ridiculous. I’m surprised it has survived this long.
I think both can be true. From a USMNT perspective, he might be the best distributor in the GK pool right now, but well below others (currently, and especially historically) when it comes to shot stopping. From a Man City perspective, he might about as good a shot-stopper as they could hope for from a backup keeper, but far below their standard and expectations as a distributor.
He's been good with the ball at his feet. I don't think Pep's comments mean Zack can't pass the ball at all, just that he doesn't need to play 80 yard through balls from the back.
Well that was just bad from Steffen. Comes off his line awkwardly and Werner has an easy pass to Ziyech for the goal.
And Zack caught in no man's land for Chelsa's score. This is what happens when you haven't played real games in a while.
It might not be a trend as I don't think it's cyclical like other trends have been. With so much analysis available now and even more coming I'm not even sure the cyclical stuff will ever cycle like it used to. We'll see but there may be more wrinkles coming from analysis that really haven't been done before. Having player be faster and quicker all the time doesn't help either. Go back and look at some of those old highlights and the defensive pressure. That's never coming back.
My U-15 game was more intense today, and it ended 6-0 in a league where you're not allowed to win by more than 6.
Steffen causing man city to not get the quadruple would be pretty unfortunate. and would ensure he’s not at city next year, so maybe the error and leading to more games next year is a good thing.
Steffen with a really poor decision that contributed to the ease of Chelsea's goal. He made one excellent stop after that, in a very similar situation.
I don’t think one mistake leads to him getting dropped. It’s unfortunate that it was the deciding goal that eliminated them.
This was a bit of my thinking before the game, but it's not great for your transfer to go out on a gaff/poor game. But I don't really see a future for him at City under Pep (or, perhaps, anyone. It's time to be "the guy" and that's not likely soon at Citeh - if ever.
So, what should Steffen have done? He couldn't go after Timo; to far away; goal 100% unprotected. The defender who should be marking Ziyech is not doing so whatsoever. The best that could have happened would have been to force Timo to shoot, as he would have missed. The second best would have been to re-position to the middle of the goal directly in front of Ziyech and Ziyech probably would have stumbled over the ball or kicked it directly to Steffen. I really think that it was bad defending allowing Timo to get the cross off and terrible marking of Ziyech. All Steffen in/actions are way down the blame scale. IMHO.
It probably still would have been a goal because it was a complete defensive breakdown, but Steffen's positioning throughout the sequence was bizarre.
I think there is definitely a US soccer media/fan "twitch" to make anything Steffen does into something bigger and worse than it actually was. I don't really understand why, other than dumb arguments about Matt Turner and playing time and whatever other positions people have decided to take because we haven't had enough USMNT games and people need things to argue about. That all said, this was an absolute, giant blunder and there's zero argument to be made other than "he ********ed up." Steffen clearly saw the defender was beaten, and thought it was going to be something he'd have to sweep away or take one on one, but the turf killed the pace of the ball way too easily and he was trapped in no man's land. It was a massive brain fart, and it only happens when you're not game sharp. I've been pretty agnostic about his situation but there have been a few of these hiccups when he's played for Citeh, and I do think he should consider leaving for a starting job somewhere. But I also still think he's the US #1 until proven otherwise.