USA goalkeeper discussion thread - Episode IV: No Hope

CJ will find another starting job. He was definitely someone to keep an eye on.

 

Thank you! His starting position has been a concern for years. He was also too deep.... one step up and one step right and it's a save, no doubt.

 

Can Freese emulate Turner's group stage performance? Can he surprise us all and pull out a Howard-esque save(s)?

 

Since I do not remember anything at all "special" about Turner's group stage performance at the last WC I would say that the answer to your first question is, Sure, he can but...
As far as your second question goes; I doubt it. All I would hope for with Freese would be that he does not trip over his own feet and fall into goal with the ball.

But a GK, any GK, can get hot and become great at just about any time. I know I once had a match where I made 26 saves including two PKs and kept a clean sheet and had an assist. I was NEVER that good before or after but, for that match, I seemed to see everything before it actually happened. That is, to put it into modern times, I played like I was a Jedi and could react to everything before it happened. But, again, I was not that good.

Freese is a decent 'keeper but he does not show any sign of greatness, but neither does anyone else in our pool.
If we are to do well at the WC we will have to do it with our field offense and defense because our goalkeepers are just average international level 'keepers. He might pull of a save or two that are much like Keller's but, his overall play will be closer to the other 'keepers in the pool. He is at least young and quick but that won't be enough against good teams.

 

Turner's group stage performance can best be summed up as, "He did not feck up". That is the best we can expect from Freese. No, Freese cannot replicate what Howard did in 2014. If we do not mention Freese in any of the post-game threads, then it will be a good World Cup for the goalkeeper.

 

I have a theory:
I think that our gk situation is a reflection of the changed requirements in the position over the recent past.
My opinion (which I believe many agree is a fact) is that our average/median technical abilities are significantly lower than many/most of the mature soccer nations and all of the top nations.
As a result, our typical keeper is deficient with his feet. This leads to a manager having to make a choice between traditional gk skills and foot skills, while the foreign counterparts, on average, are all competent with their feet

 

Though we do have goalies who aren’t bad with their feet, they just aren’t elite shotstoppers and don’t compare to the Ederson types.

I also think the game shifted and we were a bit behind but we’re in the process of catching up.

 

That's the point. We have shot stoppers, and we have goalies that are good with their feet. We have to make compromises with our choices. In Brazil, Argentina, Germany, etc the average technical ability is high enough that they don't have to compromise...at least not to the degree that we do.

In the time of Keller, Freidel, Howard etc, we didn't have to compromise either because the position didn't require it. As good as our past goalies were, I'm not so sure they would have the same careers in today's game.

 

No doubt. It just wasn't a big part of the game and none of them was any better with their feet than the current crop. Maybe worse. I remember a Keller gaff where he sent a ball right into a Mexican player who scored. With pressing if you can't pass the ball comes back to you like a boomerang so you'd better be exceptional at stopping shots because you will face a ton of them.

 

Yes, but it's not like our keepers are shot stoppers on their level who just are bad with the ball. Turner had a nice short run, but none of them are remotely near the shotstopping of a Keller, Friedel or Howard.

I think we'd be fine with a one dimensional keeper; what we have are erratic keepers or multi-dimensional mediocrity.

 

I agree and it's kind of weird that our keepers haven't gotten a lot or any better with their feet but aren't as good with their hands. Sure hope the young keepers coming up make huge steps to get back to where we used to be.

 

On a side note I've enjoyed watching Cape Verde's qualification campaign. Their friendly results have been odd, but explicable if you dig in, after qualification back in October:

0-0 draw with Iran
1-1 draw with Egypt
2-4 loss to Chile last month (makes sense, they were outscored 1-3 after giving up a red card near halftime)
1-1 draw with Finland

Not too bad....They're one of those extra sides I'll be cheering on in non-USA games (Spain, Uruguay, and the Saudi's make up a group they'll struggle to advance out of to say it lightly).....

Back to the US, Chris Brady's had an excellent start to the season, so that's good news for us anyway, hopefully we can get Gaga and Kochen on track by fall '26 to join him along with a few others, it's pretty obvious the vets aren't up for it in terms of '30 (or really '26).

 

BTW, Brady is/was #1 in Goals Prevented.

 

https://www.fotmob.com/leagues/130/stats/season/29580/players/_goals_prevented/mls-players

Currently it's Turner. Brady #2.

The fancy stats in Turner's best seasons did have him being way too good to stay in MLS. I tend to think that if he'd gone to a European team that was in the lower half of the table, he'd never have shot his confidence nor lost his US spot, and the discourse would be that we might not have Friedel, but we're fine at the position. He might get back to some semblance of that form in these months, but it might be too late.

 

How much are US keepers making in MLS?

 

I just looked through the last full salary info from MLSPA (from late last year). It seems like it averages about $200-300k. Then you've got some outliers at $700k, $800k, a million. Matt Freese is at about $500k.

 

Not as much as they make overseas.

Only three gpalkeepers made more than $1 million guaranteed in 2025.
Highest was Matt Turner, who is technically on loan from Lyon. So that's kind of his Lyon salary, but anyway.

Sean Johnson and Zack Steffen were right at a million.

The salaries are creeping up as guys like Schulte sign new contracts.

Brady and Freese signed new contracts prior to this season, and I'm sure they're doing much better now. Brady made ~270k last season.

Some of these guys that are on their original homegrown or draft contracts aren't making that much. Michael Collodi made $116k last season.

Duran Ferree in San Diego would have a higher salary as an assistant manager at TGI Friday's.

 

Damn I wouldn't have expected Johnson nor Steffen to be on that. GOOD on their agents.

Thanks for the in-depth response!

 

Article about a possible Kochen debut before the end of the season (as Barcelona is pretty close to wrapping up the title).

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7225705/2026/04/25/barcelona-kochen-flick-garcia-goalkeepers/

Some chatter about clubs being interested in taking him on loan next year also versus potentially being the number 2 at Barcelona.

 

Would be great for him to get a loan.
This year has been in the Spanish 4th tier................which basically tells us nothing.

None of our young keepers in Europe have made much noise this season. Kochen, Beavers, Slonina, Eystone, etc. Let's hope for better times next season.

 

Bummer about Turner is that it really does seem like he's at least partially rediscovered his old MLS forum with enough reps, but it hasn't shown in the shirt. Brady's up and down performance with Chicago as a prospect is now, if memory serves:
'23: Above average, and very good for his age.
'24: Pretty crummy year.
'25: Average to above average again
'26: Elite for MLS

Very promising, especially considering just how god awful Chicago was for Gaga, and then for Brady in his first two years as a starter.

With Kochen, Brady, and a few other interesting kids, I do think we probably should be okay by '28 at GK, '30 at the latest, probably a stretch to imagine us hitting that '94-'14 era again, but I don't think its unreasonable to imagine we have two quality starters again for the first time since '14 by '30, maybe '28. Fingers crossed, it's been a long horrible decline from 2018-2026.

 

Early each cycle, we usually cap a couple U-23 keepers (by which I mean keepers who were 23 or younger when they were capped). And it's kind of interesting to see how pretty much all of those players stuck around in the USMNT pool and formed the core of our pool for years to come. Brady's probably the strongest candidate to join that list at the start of next cycle.

1990-91: Meola (already a starter by '89) and Keller
1994-95: Friedel (already capped by '92) and Hahnemann
1998-99: no U-23s were capped or playing regularly in MLS
2002-03: Howard and Rimando
2006-07: Guzan [no other U-23 keeper was capped or playing regularly in MLS]
2010-11: Johnson [+ Hamid in 2012, playing regularly in MLS in '11]
2014-15: no U-23s were capped. MacMath was an MLS starter in 2014, but not 2015.
2018-19: Steffen, Horvath (first capped prior to '18)
2023-24: Schulte, Slonina

I'd note, Celentano probably deserved a cap more than Slonina this cycle. (Celentano finished 2nd in voting for GK of the year in 2023 at the age of 23, while Slonina hasn't really performed all that well anywhere. Though Slonina's still young enough that he could be the first player to show up on that list two cycles in a row, depending on whether he can find a decent club situation next season.)

That list also kind of underscores how anomalous these past 5 years have been, in that our two most recent starting goalkeepers didn't emerge as serious options for us until the age of 26. Turner and Freese weren't even MLS starters at 23. That's not the typical profile of a USMNT keeper, and it really wasn't by choice that it ended up that way these past two cycles.

 

The hope is by 2028 one of the younger options has really broken out and established themselves.

 

Just the odds seem higher than the last few years. Quite a lot of good prospects.