That's fair. I've just seen some pretty incredible shot stopping out of him at times. I know a lot of folks have some concerns with him, but it seems like he's the kind of high upside guy we should be betting one with Horvath and Steffen already on strong trajectories.
Interestingly, Jesse Gonzalez is essentially the same age as Ethan Horvath. Folks still talk about Ethan Horvath as if he's still a young keeper with additional time to develop further. Jesse's been around for so long that folks lose sight of the fact that he only just turned 24. Like Horvath, still hasn't hit his prime. I'm admittedly biased, but I think Jesse's been the best keeper in MLS this season. If he was playing on a team with higher visibility like a Seattle or LAG, I think folks would be slobbering all over him at the moment. Demanding his inclusion in the USMNT> He's been that good. He's always had the athleticism and shot stopping ability. He's seemingly really worked on aspects of his game that were holding him back: Distribution, defending corners and set pieces, being a vocal organizer and leader in the back, etc. And there have been zero goal-costing mental blunders as was mentioned above. Our keepers behind Steffen at the Gold Cup were Tyler Miller and Sean Johnson. Fine backups. I think Gonzalez is superior to those two. From where I sit we have a clear #1. Horvath is seemingly the #2, but the gap from him to others isn't that great. It would be good for the program if we have more young and youngish keepers advance so that we have some real depth of competition. Right now the whole keeper pool seems kind of stagnant outside of Steffen. Just as a case study for that stagnation, which three keepers are you calling up for the U23 Olympic qualifying team? A difficult question based on the fact that almost no U23 keepers are starting regular first team games.
I havent really followed him this year. My biggest concern with him in the past were the rebounds he gives up into dangerous spots. Not the best, but not the worst way to get sense about goalkeepers is to watch game highlights. I just went through a good portion of the goals conceded and saves he has made this season included in the highlights. It does look like he has improved. He definitely can cover a lot of ground with his height and wing span to make saves, the same goes for very good reactions. He looked a bit more composed than I recall and for the most part liked his decision making. With a very critical eye, I still saw some rebounds right back into the middle of play, footwork could use improving, positioning can be off a bit, and some times is late getting set. The first one is straight forward. The others will be about if he fully understands how important they are and willingness to continue refining them toward perfection. I think I saw one or two that he got pulled a bit too far to the near post or not back on his line which cost him making a save he probably should have. There were a couple more where if he got it all right, he might have been able to pull off a bug time save. I really think he should be in the mix fighting for a USMNT spot. I also think he would benefit from moving to a higher level where there is much more scrutiny. The next few years will be crucial for him to determine his ultimate level. A very loose rule is that GKs peak around 28 to 30, but then can often maintain that level as they further refine parts of their game as their athleticism slowly declines. There are obviously outliers and may the window should be a little larger or later. I think of Steffen, Horvath, and Gonzalez as being about the same age as I did many years ago with Meola, keller, and freidel. I've seen many worried about our GKing situation, but I am quite excited about it. All three are still young, have continued to improved, and likely to continue to do so due to club situations and competition between them. They all have different strengths and styles. I guess some could say they are a bit young still in 2022, but all should have plenty of experience. Berhalter has gone with Johnson and Miller. I dont see either get to the place I think they are a good option and would rather have Guzan in camp for his experience (in addition to these three). I think Horvath has improved a lot in Belgium. I thought there was too much hype for him based on his actual performances while at molde. I think be benched forced him to sharpen up his game in training. The same happened for Howard and even some the guys before him. The u23 group doesnt look that strong, but not that concerned due to age of Steffen et al. I didnt think Ochoa was ready for this u20 WC, but he could have more potential than Scott who I generally like. Klinsmann looks like he could get there but I wouldnt bet on it. Marcinkowski looks to have a ceiling somewhere around Rimando. Hopefully, they are enough for qualifying and we can use one of 24/25 yo at the actual Olympics.
I think if we had Olympic qualifiers tomorrow our top three U23 keepers would be Jonathan Klinsmann, Brady Scott, and David Ochoa. Combined first team starts? One. Klinsmann made one start for Hertha Berlin in the Europa League if I remember correctly. There have been a couple of poor cycles of goalkeepers in a row after Steffen. TO me Steffen was the best young keeper I'd seen with the UYSNTs since Howard. Ochoa is fine, but he's not in that category. To me there's not a lot of help on the way in the position. Maybe Damian Las, but there's all sorts of weirdness going on with him as it seems the Chicago Fire are doing away with their U19 team. So he's in the wilderness at the moment. Can't go to another MLS club. Can't go to Europe.
I have no idea as to his style of play or how good he really is, but there's been an American GK starting in the Danish Superliga: Michael Lansing, for AC Horsens, who are typically a mid-table side. Had a big 2-1 win today over Brøndby, one of the relative powerhouses of the league. Lansing was born in June '94, so younger than Bono and Miller. Just a potential depth option to keep in mind.
Sorry Chuck unless you roomed with, played for or against 3G your chances of making the side are limited. You need to be clearly better than a starter to get a chance at the 23.
Also, the next U20 GK depth looks astoundingly good at first glance. A possible MLS starter: David Ochoa (RSL) Multiple Euro-based options: Damian Las (Fulham?), Chituru Odunze (Leicester), Ethan Wady (Chelsea), Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen (Everton), Luca Lewis (Torino) Multiple USL starters: Aaron Cervantes (Orange County), Abraham Rodriguez (Colorado Springs) Other USL part-timers: John Pulskamp, Brooks Thompson, Max Trejo (all from Swope Park Rangers) Good DA options: Seth Wilson (FCD), Marzuq Puckerin (Atlanta Utd), Brennan Klein (RSL), Chris Edwards (Solar), JT Harms or Logan Kowalczyk (Crew), Bryan Dowd (Chicago FC Utd) Good NCAA options: Owen Finnerty (Michigan), Alex Rando (Stanford), Patrick Schulte (SLU), Kris Shakes (Penn St), Collin Travasos (Cal) Combining them with the "older" options like Steffen, Horvath, Gonzalez, Marcinkowski, Klinsmann, Vom Steeg, Freese, Thomas, Silva, Scott, Muse, Garces, Dos Santos, Ejimadu, Avilez, etc., the pipeline looks great.
I dont have high hopes for any of those three, but they all have the physical tools to become very good if the rest clicks. Ochoa is still very young and will have another shot at the u20s. I think Steffen is the most well rounded GK we have ever had at this age. I still think Meolas play in 1989 might be the most impressive thing we have ever seen a young goalkeeper do. Keller had a great u20 WC. Howard was incredibly athletic but had lots of things he still needed to work out. Steffen is pretty much the total package with the exception of needing to be better with the ball at his feet. I still think Horvath is close and will give him some serious competition. @ChuckMe92 appears to know this pool very well. The two from this cycle that I didnt know much about but seemed to also have a lot of potential were dos Santos and Muse. Las situation seems challenging, but I am keen to see what comes of Odunze. He seems very raw, but 6' 7" is very intriguing.
Why can't Las go to another MLS team if Chicago has told him to find a team? They can waive their rights to him or seek a minimal trade (I remember a few years ago an Eastern Euro team traded a player for some cords of wood).
Until someone starts getting meaningful minutes at a substantial level, I would hold off on saying the pipeline looks great. Outside of a few Americans getting brought in to European clubs - where they haven't made a splash yet - we haven't accomplished anything. Going to Penn State or Stanford is nice and all, but every other respectable country has dozens of prospects at that level of play. At this point, our U23s need to be performing at a level where higher-level clubs are chomping at the bit for them. There are certainly some interesting prospects but few are really making a push for the next jump. Ochoa's probably the lead gk as far as that goes, but his play has been so chaotic I can't see RSL rolling with him in the post-Rimando era. Hopefully I'm wrong and he plays great but seems a stretch at this point. Of our Euro-based gks, I'm fairly certain they all hold dual citizenship which means if they really do turn out well, we will be competing for their services, meaning we don't have anything nailed down there. So "interesting" is probably a better level of where we're at. Certainly things could go our way but until we get a goalkeeper making a similar move as Tim Howard did to Manchester United (as a potential starter, not an academy kid), I don't think it's fair to give us much credit at this point.
Good post. Regarding Marcinkowski, if he gets to be as good as Rimando I'll be happy to have him on a roster.
Horvath should consider a loan move. Like right now. I don't follow Brugge but for a club their size it's an interesting signing. Belgian international and loads of experience but could argue money be spent elsewhere.
Just a name to keep an eye on for the future. He's the starter for our U17s................ 1160917608369143808 is not a valid tweet id
What Howard did is actually more impressive since he wasn't actually brought in to be the starter, at least not from day one. Manchester United (which at the time was the biggest and richest club in the world, comparable to Man City/Real/Barca today) had Fabien Barthez, starting GK for the French team that had won the 1998 WC and 2000 Euros, as their starter. The expectation was that Howard would come in, sit behind Barthez for a year or two, and then possibly he'd be ready to take over the starting job. Instead he came in, directly from the MetroStars at age ~23, and immediately beat out Barthez.
Oh good another American teen that will get buried and never heard from again in lower division England. Man I know these agents get a cut and lower division English team have more money to spend the most 1st divisions in Europe but man word need to spread to stop signing in England to develop.
Las did have a problem, though. He was on the Chicago U19 academy team, and Chicago chose not to field a U19 for next year. [I know. Inexplicable. Mindless] Since he's from Chicago's homegrown territory, there was no point in another MLS club recruiting him. They can't sign him. So he pretty much had to go abroad. Was Fulham the best choice? Who knows. We'll see. I'm not a big fan of young Americans going to England youth/reserve teams. The hurdle to first team football is enormous. The last several young Americans at Fulham have had issues advancing (Emerson Hyndman, Luca de la Torre, Marlon Fossey, etc.)
Are you sure this is true? Homegowns have been traded before. Chicago could have just renounced his rights or traded something like TAM, GAM or a draft pick for him.
Yes. Chicago could have traded his "homegrown rights" to another club. In the end, I think it was well know that Las was looking for an overseas opportunity.
Him hinting way ago that he will go to Europe was much bigger problem. Him hinting way ago that he will go to Europe was much bigger problem.
Way before my time but how shocking was it that they signed him and how more shocking was it that he became the no.1?
At least for me, my reaction was kinda ho-hum. After getting to the QFs in 2002, and Friedel putting in a superhuman performance, with the sweet naivety of youth, I thought we had arrived and were just going to be a top 10-15 team going forward, with our keepers especially likely to be world class. So, why wouldn't we have a younger GK come on the scene and transfer to Man U?
Mildly surprising that they bought him. It was the biggest club that had ever bought any American let alone directly from MLS, but he was by far the best GK in the league and had excelled for the US at the youth level as well as in his (just a handful at the time) appearances for the senior team. Plus this was in Friedel and Keller's prime, American GKs had a lot more credibility in Europe and especially in England at the time than field players did. Extremely shocking that he won the starting job so quickly. He was still our #3 GK (had been #4 as recently as the previous summer's World Cup) and while Barthez was just starting to decline he was still considered a top 5-10 GK in the world at the time.