USA goalkeeper discussion thread - Episode IV: No Hope

That was the word back then/shortly after....who knows how true it was. If I had to guess maybe "hate" a bit too strong and probably not a lifelong thing but they didn't get along at that point in time. But I wasn't in the locker room obviously so who knows. At any rate, their relationship does seem to have played a major role in Bruce's decision to bring Meola over Howard.

 

That was a competitive rivalry. Saying Friedel and Keller "hated each other" is way overboard. There's no evidence of that. Could it have been true? I guess so, but we don't have any actual evidence.

Keller had been the starter most of the 2002 cycle. He tweaked his back a little bit prior to our first game, and Arena went with Friedel. Then Bruce stayed with the "hot hand" thru the rest of the event. Keller, who'd been the #1 thru the cycle, was salty that opportunity didn't go back to him after his back was better.

That kind of thing.....................thru their entire tenures. Both thought they were the better keeper, as athletes do. That kind of competitive rivalry isn't necessarily a bad thing.

You don't have to be friends with your teammates. This isn't the Boy Scouts.

 

Makes sense for the rivalry to have pushed these two to their highest form. I remember Howard and Guzan were seen as close though Guzan wasn't exactly pushing Howard for his starting spot. In recent years, we haven't had a no.2 who kept the no.1 on his toes and it shows overall.

 

I'm keeping an eye on this one vis-a-vi Celentano.
Why did Cincinnati sign a 22- year old Polish youth international from Liverpool who requires an international roster slot?
FC Cincinnati acquire goalkeeper Fabian Mrozek | MLSSoccer.com

Celentano's contract runs thru the 2027 season. Maybe there's something going on behind the scenes here. Maybe Celentano isn't signing an extension, and they're going to have to consider selling/trading him in the next two windows (or risk losing him on a free).

 

True enough, but that's more on who the coach was. It was 100% Steffan's job until suddenly it was 100% Turner's job.

 

Which made sense. When Berhalter took the job, Steffen was MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and Best XI in 2018. It made sense for him to get the first crack at the job as Berhalter turned the page to a new generation. Following the 2018 season, Manchester City acquired him.

He gave Steffen a ride until it became clear a change needed to be made. Then switched to Turner, who was MLS goalkeeper of the year in 2021.

I'm of the opinion that you want the #1 by a mile. LIke.............................Italy will likely have had two starting goalkeepers for most of 40 years. Buffon and Donnarumma. I saw a conversation between pundits about the backup Italian keepers for upcoming WCQers (and WC), and the conversation basically ended at "Who knows? Who cares? Pick 2 of these 5 others and go." I had honestly never heard of the guys they were talking about.

That's what you want.

The best example of when having two elite keepers goes bad is Kahn and Lehmann with Germany. To this day they're sniping at each other.

We were in a position in 2025 of Pochettino (and goalkeeping coach) just needing to make a decision of which guy to go with, and roll. Freese was their pick. Is there a gap between him and others in MLS like Schulte, Brady, and Celentano? Not in my mind. The team, at some point, did have to pick one and give him the work.

Our situation can best be described by the fact I just mentioned the last two times an American has won MLS Goalkeeper of the year. Steffen in 2018 and Turner in 2021.

 

OK, I'm taking back that crazy thought of using Horvath in any capacity. Sorry.

 

For those following, how good are the Freese/Schulte/Turner/Steffen/Horvaths so far this season?

 

From watching, Freese has been Freese; pretty good. Horvath had a good couple of first games and was a disaster in his third. New England is a dire watch; I haven't seen Turner.

 

New England has only played two games this season due to field problems.

The Revs versus Cincinnati matchup today will be interesting. Turner versus Celentano.

 

Leonard Prescott (16)​

Call him up what do we have to lose

🚨 Goalkeeper crisis at Bayern.

Even Sven Ulreich is now injured, it remains to be seen if he’ll be fit. The same question applies to Jonas Urbig and whether he can return in time.

Bayern could face Atalanta with Leonard Prescott (16) starting in goal. 😳 pic.twitter.com/r5bAXuIL6T

— FCBinside.com - Bayern News (@FCBinsideEN) March 15, 2026

 

Turner as played in 3 games, given up 5 goals and made 14 saves with a passing completion of 67%. Not great.

 

And yet, G+ has him as one of the best shot stoppers int he league so far. Difficulty of saves is important. I'd compare and contrast with some other models, but fbref lost their numbers.

Passing completion % is so affected by gameplan that it is basically meaningless.

 

But, sometimes, difficult saves are made difficult by poor play/positioning/leadership in the lead up to needing to make the save. 'keepers do much to set up the level of saves they have to make and Turner has always been one to make early mistakes on a sequence and therefore make the subsequent save(s) harder than they need to be.

Turner is an over the hill goalkeeper that was really never very good to start with.

 

Goodhands - do you ever talk up / build up players or do you just take shots at every player? Keepers age later so He's not over the hill. He might not be on the WC squad but the question is always who is better. So who are the three you want on the squad ahead of the over the hill guy?

 

This is such a good point. It’s the only position the us has where I can’t name a guy I’m ok with much less three! I’m still of the opinion that Turner is more likely to make a big save than Freese, but probably more likely to make a big mistake too.

 

Indeed.

There's probably not much difference between our top 6 or 7 choices.
Could Stuver do the same job as Schulte? Yes, probably.

But at some point, a USMNT manager and goalkeeping coach has to pick their guy.
The coach needs to give him as many games with the defenders, etc. as possible.

Matt Freese has STARTED every game since the Switzerland friendly debacle. Every game.
We've rotated the cast of characters in camp, and the staff has evaluated a bunch of guys, but Freese has started all of our last 12 games.

Freese is the clear #1.

Who are the others in line for the World Cup? Hell if I know. We'll have a clearer picture of who's in and out when we see the March roster. If somebody like Turner or Schulte or Celentano or Brady or Klinsmann or Steffen or whomever is left off of that roster, then they're clearly on the cusp of being out.

I was listening to podcasters talk about the England goalkeepers for the World Cup. They have an obvious #1 in Pickford. The other four keepers called up over the last calendar year (Henderson, Trafford, Pope, and Ramsdale) all have 10 caps or less. Not much experience with the national team. And even less recent experience. They were debating whether this was a problem. Was it a liability? If Pickford gets hurt, then aren't they in trouble? Some of those guys aren't playing. Trafford isn't playing regularly. Ramsdale and Pope are on the same team in club soccer.

The conclusion was "Yes, its a liability. But you'd rather have that clear #1 than not."

We don't have that, but we had to pick one.

I see a lot of benefit in having Turner as the experienced hand in WC camp. A guy who's been there, done that.......................and won't wet the bed if he's called upon in a big game. He might make a mistake as all keepers do, but he won't be shaking with stage fright.

 

Goalkeepers for March camp:

Freese, Turner, Brady, Celentano

One would expect those four are vying for three spots on the World Cup roster. [with the fourth likely an alternate.]

I'm not willing to say the others have been fully eliminated, but they're definitely hanging on by a fingernail.

 

I'm willing to say it unless there's an injury to one of these three.

 

Its interesting because Brady and Celentano have zero USMNT caps.

They'd probably be vying for 3rd string, so it doesn't really matter. Still................................zero USMNT caps between them.

Celentano doesn't have a cap on any level. USYNTs or USMNT. I wonder how many players we've had make a World Cup roster with zero caps on any level.

We've got Freese as the starter, Turner as the experience back-up, and then likely one of those two.

 

Last time it happened was David Regis in '98.

But the more relevant example is probably Juergen Sommer in '94.

Julian Green comes close, but he got a single sub appearance in the game before we named our roster for '14.

 

But Regis went into that World Cup with some caps. His first cap was against Kuwait in the run-up to the World Cup.

I guess we can still see a cap for Celentano and/or Brady.

[I'd argue that Regis was one of the more effective players for the USMNT at WC98. But incorporating a foreign-born player that late, and replacing stalwart eff Agoos, didn't go down well in the locker room.]

 

The Kuwait game was after we already announced the roster though.

If we're counting sendoff series games, then Sommer might be the only one in the modern era without a cap heading into the World Cup.

 

It kind of makes sense to be a backup keeper.......................................

I just find it interesting that a player could make a World Cup roster with zero appearances for the US on any level.