Jeeeebus. Zack has the yips or something. I truly feel he’s regressed over the past year. Seems like he needs consistent matches somewhere. Simply indefensible with that mistake
He was actually doing well. Played some not straightforward balls to relieve pressure. Teammates couldn’t find a forward pass. But obviously inexcusable and Turner has to be our GK.
That's a bit extreme, but if there was a USMNT match tomorrow he would not start for me. Remember Horvath made a similar mistake earlier this year.
I only turned it on to see him get beaten near post. You’re making me not even want to see the earlier highlights.
If you watch him “play” for club or country, he makes bad errors most games. His occasional big save doesn’t make up for it. I wouldnt be surprised if Man City ship him out. He’s not good enough to be their backup.
He just signed an extension through 2025 in November, so they're not going to sell him, but I agree that he isn't good enough to be their backup. They seem to think differently for whatever reason.
We will see. That contract is peanuts for them. If he keeps committing howlers, they will look elsewhere. They are an Ederson injury away from disaster.
Seems too nonchalant with the ball at his feet. Which is why he got pounced on. Needs a little more urgency in getting rid of it.
Some dumb team will be impressed by his Man City logo, so he'll get a starting shot at another top 5 league club. And some dumb fans, already impressed by his Man City logo, will then be impressed he's nominally still a top 5 league player, thinking that makes him better than Horvath or pre-Arsenal Matt Turner. One of those dumb fans is Berhalter.
That's not the point. Everyone makes mistakes. Steffen makes repeated mistakes of the same kind--poor judgment and he's made them wherever he has played as keeper. (@nthemsum described Steffen's approach as "too nonchalant" which I think is pretty accurate for what is going on). It is simply unacceptable (to me, at least) to have a player who repeatedly makes these kinds of errors. Field players can get away with more of those because they are usually far enough from the goal that the problem can be stifled. Keepers are not.
Steffen just isn‘t very good. He just isn‘t. We always lament how our players get the short end of the stick, don’t get a fair chance, etc. Well, Steffen is the privileged kid who has gotten every chance in the world. He has made the same ridiculous blunders his entire pro career, is an average to below shot stopper and doesn‘t command his box well. Yet, people still excuse him. Perception, and maybe desperation over reality.
Yup. I generally hate the ridiculous coach bashing, but this is 100% on GB right now. This is clear and obvious. The stats don‘t back Steffen up, his play doesn‘t, his decision making doesn‘t, his history doesn‘t. It‘s so brutally obvious.
Who does the data back up though? Turner straight-up lost the US job in October, hasn't played a game in 2 months, and is going to be in the same PT situation as Steffen soon, Horvath hasn't been able to hold down a starting job at any level in years, and all of the MLS options are below-average at best. You can criticize Steffen, and rightly, but it's disingenuous to argue that anyone else is a clear #1 and improvement on Steffen. Our goalkeeping situation just isn't very good right now.
Disingenuous is to use the circular logic of Gregg benching Turner as evidence he should be benched. Gregg totally overreacted to the away match v. Panama on an individual level. In addition to Turner's benching, a few starters didn't see another minute in qualifying. Almost everybody looked so much worse in that game than in any other one they played in qualifying. It was reminiscent of Gregg's poor setup v. Jamaica in a friendly that led to the likes of Antonee Robinson and Djordje Mihailovic looking like they've never played before. They both got exiled for a period after. Then Antonee went on to arguably be the MVP of qualifying, while Mihailovic has warranted re-integration for a while now due to excellent club play. For the keepers, it's not about their club situations at this point, and indeed the data is what matters. It backs up that Steffen is the inferior keeper to the alternatives. When Steffen is allowing 2 and a half more goals per game than Turner for the nat'l team & Horvath has posted a career save % at the club level almost double digit pts higher than Steffen, it's a waste of everybody's time to keep talking about this. And it'll likely be a waste of pts in the WC if Steffen plays.
Oh yeah we are screwed. For me there has always been this impression that Steffen wlll come through when it‘s becoming clear he won‘t. The duke I believe had all the shot stopping stats on the S boards if I recall. Horvath,“lost the job“, based on a poor Canada performance. Steffen has had so many of those in a S uni I am afraid. Even during Turner‘s run GB implied Steffen was still his number 1 and gave it back first chance he got. This is where my issues come from. It seems GB may have made his mind up no matter what, and the slack he has given this guy since he took over has been large. GB usually makes decent player decisions and has legit reasons, whether folks like them or not, but this one is one I have always had problems with. I have never trusted Steffen, even at Columbus he made so may unforced errors, but I always got the feeling he was going to play no matter what. Of course the horror of our keeper situation makes it all worse. Turner will be a back up, Horvath probably also….it‘s brutal. For me, I have never trusted Steffen, but we may have to deal with him by default. This is one of those hopeless situations I know I shouldn‘t post a lot about because posting won‘t change it, but prefer other evils to Steff at this point simply because Steff guarantees a major gaffe over a couple of matches IMO, while the others have a shot to get hot maybe. Yup, our situation s that bad.
This what bothers me so much. Steffen feels like a waste of time at this point. The others may not be great but Steffen? Sigh.
Yes. There is absolutely no point in playing a player who can't be trusted, especially a keeper. That's the way I have felt about Brooks, too. Repetitive, extremely dangerous errors that crossed a line of no return. I think Pep's words supporting Steffen were simple the managerial equivalent of a Premier League Board of Directors issuing an announcement that it "has full faith in, and completely supports, the manager."
I was actually having a discussion with another journalist last night. My contention is that if Stefan Frei had been an American citizen his whole career, there is a good chance he would have been the #1 for a long period of time (when healthy) and might be in strong contention now. Frei became an American citizen right round the time the USMNT failed to qualify for the WC in 2017 with an old Howard in net. He was 31 at the time. Then after the WCQ failure, there was pressure to go younger. So his American citizenship came at the worst possible time. If he was an American citizen his whole life or career, he would have pushed Howard and Guzan because he was better than both in 2016 and 2017. Then he would have had his foot in the door. He might not be a starter, but he deserves to be in the mix right now.