From the 90s all the way to the mid 2010s, the US consistently had at least a couple of goalkeepers playing regularly (and doing well) in a top 5 league in the world. This has changed in the past 8 years or so. Since we’ve improved our output of higher level players across all positions, it begs the question – why has the US stopped producing top level goalkeepers?
We could break this down by individual goalkeepers, as many recently have had a chance to claim a spot in a top level league (Turner, Steffen), as well as a couple up and comers in Europe and a few promising young GKs in the MLS. But it does seem like something is happening in the bigger picture which affects the quality of goalkeeper we produce.
We should produce good GKs
Goalkeeper is still a position where we should excel, given the many sports utilizing hands we are exposed to as kids, as well as the athletes we produce in the US. We have a great talent pool for the position.
We used to have our top 3 goalkeepers all starting for teams in top 5 leagues, as well as others who were on that level. Friedel, Howard, and Keller all set a high standard, and on their day could be considered world class.
Compare that to now. Our number one (Turner) is a backup at a mid-level Premier League team. Our number two (Horvath) is struggling for time in the Championship (second tier in England), and our other contenders either play in MLS and are not quite ready for the jump to Europe (like Schulte), are in the MLS and will likely never make the jump (due to age or ability, like Johnson or Callendar), or are playing in Europe but too unproven to start for the USMNT within the next few years (Slonina, Kochen).
Let’s break down why this is happening.
Lack of foot skills
The number one reason why US goalkeepers are not making it at the top level. Foot skills have become much more important for goalkeepers over the past 5-10 years or so. Ever since teams started stressing playing out from the back, using the goalkeeper as an additional field player in the buildup, it extended the skillset that the modern goalkeeper needs to play at the top level.
No longer can you just be a great shot stopper who is adequate with their feet. Players like Alisson, Ederson, Raya, Neuer, and Ter Stegen have revolutionized the position, and even mid-table teams have started to value goalkeepers with this ability. You almost have to have the touch and passing range of a midfielder. Doing so opens up a lot of attacking opportunities from the back to bypass the pressing that has become commonplace recently.
While they were all great goalkeepers, it would be hard to see any of Friedel, Keller, or Howard (who was good with his feet for his time) playing the way these top guys play today. Maybe Howard could do it, but not at the level of the goalkeepers mentioned in the paragraph above. It just wasn’t required of them.
Do any fit the modern prototype?
The US is not producing goalkeepers with good foot skills. Looking at the pool of national team players, only Zach Steffen would be considered good with his feet (and he has been shaky of late…). And he had a stint as the backup at Manchester City, which requires elite foot skills and distribution to play in that system. Unfortunately his career hit a downturn just as most goalkeepers hit their prime, as he missed out on the 2022 World Cup roster. His shot stopping has been inconsistent, and he has been prone to errors, but his ability to play with his feet has brought him back in the mix.
Diego Kochen is another who is good with his feet, as evidenced by his progress in the Barcelona set-up (he plays on their B team) as an 18 year old. Even though he is at one of the best clubs in the world, he is still a teenager and unproven at the top level. And even with his inexperience, he was still recently called into a senior squad with the USMNT – this shows our lack of depth at the position.
Too old school
The other goalkeepers in our pool are not great with their feet. Matt Turner is the perfect example of not being able to fit this new mold. He is a top level shot stopper and has improved with his feet, but he is limited in this facet of his game (errors with his feet caused him to lose his starting spot at mid/lower table Nottingham Forest last year, and now he is the backup at Crystal Palace). You’d imagine he would have been a great goalkeeper in the 90s and 2000s, but this limitation in his ability will keep him from becoming a top level goalkeeper today.
The others in the mix have the same problem. Great shot stoppers, average at best with their feet.
We still have great athletes who have played sports involving their hands since they were young (I mean Turner was primarily a baseball player growing up and didn’t start playing soccer until he was 16!). You can still become a great shot stopper and a good goalkeeper, even if you don’t have great foot skills, but you cannot play at the top level these days with this limitation.
Even with this evolution in the game, you’d expect our goalkeeping pool to adapt. So why haven’t they?
I have a few thoughts below, but nothing based on hard evidence or data. This is speculation from a former professional goalkeeper, but I do think the following factors play a big role.
Do we specialize too early?
Our goalkeepers have never really had great foot skills. Even before it was necessary, other countries produced goalkeepers who could handle field player duties pretty well. It provided an advantage for those teams being able to pass to their goalkeeper, but the entire top level professional game didn’t need a goalkeeper to have great foot skills.
Many Latin American goalkeepers were excellent with their feet (Higuita, Chilavert, Tafferel, Campos), and a few Europeans were noted for this skillset too (Barthez, Neuer, Casillas, Valdez). These guys would all fit in well in today’s game.
The culture
I believe it’s because these guys from other countries all played a lot of soccer growing up, and didn’t necessarily have to specialize as goalkeepers early on. Here in the US, a lot of young talented goalkeepers don’t have the chance to play on the field much growing up. It’s not a part of our soccer culture.
I think you notice this with the US goalkeepers, even those who are decent with their feet, is that they seem robotic with the ball at their feet. It’s almost like playing soccer as a soccer player is not natural to them.
Turner is a great example. He started playing the game relatively late in his life and he was always a goalkeeper. He never played on the field growing up. It is remarkable what he has been able to achieve given this late start, and he even got some time with Arsenal in a system that relied heavily on goalkeeper distribution.
While he was “trained” to use his feet competently in the Arsenal system, he never played the game growing up, and you can tell. His touch and movement with the ball isn’t natural. He can’t put his foot on the ball until a play develops, and the lack of natural composure is evident. He doesn’t see and/or can’t consistently ping those 30-40 yard passes that can bypass a press. But top level teams expect him to make these plays regularly.
This led to some errors trying to adapt to this approach, which led to his loss of confidence and eventual demotion (side note, I believe he can be a top level goalkeeper, but a team needs to not use him in this way, like how Newcastle uses Nick Pope – just let him stop shots and be safe with the ball at his feet).
Contrast this with guys like Alisson and Ederson, and you see the difference. These guys started playing futsal at a young age and didn’t completely specialize as goalkeepers until they were teenagers. They look like field players out there.
I believe this is the best way to create well-rounded goalkeepers and athletes. We should still have them playing in the field instead of focusing solely on traditional goalkeeper training. Even if we know they won’t eventually be field players, we need to create goalkeepers with a more natural feel for playing the game as a field player. Even if you train and train the situations where they use their feet, it won’t give them the natural composure and ability to play their way out of trouble.
Does our training and style of play still favor the old-school prototype?
I don’t have enough exposure to how our national teams and academies are training goalkeepers to make this judgment. By the time a goalkeeper gets into the academy or youth national team picture, it’s too late. The problem lies deeper and earlier than what the academies and youth national teams can fix.
The root of the problem lies in keeping these talented goalkeepers in goal too much when they are much younger (ages 5-12). When we have a big, athletic player who is just ok with their feet, a team is smart to try them in goal. If they do well in the position, they never leave it, because good goalkeepers in general are hard to come by.
So these talented players always play in goal. In practice, in games, in scrimmages – all the time. They’re likely not playing any pickup on the side, so they develop great goalkeeping skills but not natural field player skills.
Looking at the bigger picture, if you have a talented young goalkeeper, you are actually helping his or her development by letting them play in the field more often. It could be participating in small-sided games in training, or encouraging them to play pickup, or getting them on an indoor/futsal team (on the field), or throwing them on the field for scrimmages.
Likely the pay-to-play and “win now” mentality of our youth setup has its role to play too, since youth teams don’t want to risk losing by playing a goalkeeper in the field every now and then. But a long term development model gives these talented players the chance to develop a natural feel for playing on the field. And here’s the thing, the talented goalkeepers won’t miss the development of their goalkeeping skills – they have plenty of time to refine those too as they get older.
I was lucky to be able to play a decent amount on the field as a youth player, only really specializing at age 12. I had good foot skills for a goalkeeper (would have been more useful in today’s game!) and made it as a professional.
Other reasons our goalkeepers are falling behind
While the lack of foot skills is the most glaring area for our goalkeepers, we need to consider some other factors too.
Lack of leadership in the position
Since guys like Friedel, Keller, and Howard have retired, no one has carried the torch to set an example and standard for our young goalkeepers.
Of our goalkeepers in their prime, Turner missed his chance in the Premier League and will be lucky to get another. Steffen never fulfilled the promise that got him to Manchester City and is now back in the MLS. Horvath never quite had the upside to be elite.
Some of the young guys have a chance to eventually make it, but there is no one right now setting the high standard we used to have for American goalkeepers. Without this example, the up and comers have a lower bar to clear to get their chance with the USMNT.
Keller, Friedel, Howard, Guzan, Hahnemann, and many others had to push each other to earn that spot. This competition created better goalkeepers who had to prove themselves week in and week out at the club level to earn the call up to the national team. This pressure created diamonds. Right now the number 1 sits the bench for his club team, and no one is grabbing the chance. No pressure means no greatness.
It also affects the standing of our goalkeepers in other leagues. When the standard of our goalkeeping is lower across the board, it’s going to be harder for our young guys to get a chance at a top league. Sure it will eventually happen, but it’s just one more hurdle to clear.
Missing out on college?
Most people deride college soccer as a developmental black hole for our best players. Compared to what other countries do, it’s true. Except maybe for goalkeepers.
The only number one for our national team not to play college soccer over the past 20 years was Tim Howard. He was a prodigy and talented enough to go straight from high school and get minutes in the MLS at a young age. But aside from these outliers, even most top level goalkeepers need first team game experience at a lower level to learn the position.
College soccer happens to be a great environment for goalkeepers to learn, even if it’s for a couple of years. At the full professional level, it takes a long time even for good goalkeepers to earn a starting spot in a mid-level league (like the MLS). Sure there are exceptions, but goalkeepers tend to mature later, and those who have a lot of potential at ages 18-21 still need development if they’re not ready to start in a decent pro league.
Minutes that matter
At college they get minutes in an intense environment, people really care about these games (more so than a USL or MLS Next game) so the intensity is higher (even if the quality is a bit lower) – this helps hone their ability to focus and not make mistakes in high pressure situations. Plus the elite goalkeepers will naturally be the leaders on their college teams, helping them to develop this part of their game too.
They can also take the time to work on their weaknesses and take advantage of the great athletic facilities at most top level schools. I could think of worse environments specifically for goalkeepers to develop.
I’m not saying it’s a better environment for everyone to develop – it’s far inferior for field players who have a much different set of requirements to reach their potential.
Even if you don’t agree with this approach, you have to respect the many good to great goalkeepers the college game has developed (Friedel, Keller, Guzan, Hahnemann, Hislop, Turner, Steffen, Meola).
The development of the MLS Next league and getting more goalkeepers to skip college may not be best for the development of some. As I mentioned before, getting minutes in an intense environment is better than sitting the bench for an MLS team and playing in small cities in front of sparse crowds in reserve matches. Games and pressure make goalkeepers better, and if you’re not getting both on a regular basis, you will not develop to your potential (the exception is someone like Diego Kochen who is on Barcelona’s B team… but that’s one of the best clubs in the world).
For elite youth goalkeepers, of course getting minutes in a top pro league with pressure and expectations will be the best form of development. But we need a deeper pool of goalkeepers, and college soccer has actually produced these players in the past. Even though some were in a different era, It may not be the worst thing to ignore.
An anomaly
Maybe our goalkeeping situation is regressing to the mean. We did have a period of great goalkeepers, but that could have been a statistical anomaly.
Given all the resources and the popularity of the game increasing over the past 30 years, I doubt this is a great explanation, but certainly the explosion of goalkeepers we saw in the 90s and 2000s was probably some kind of outlier given our country’s standing in the game.
Verdict
When pinpointing why the US has stopped producing top level goalkeepers, the biggest issue seems to lie with the increasing importance of foot skills and distribution that the modern game requires. And our goalkeeping pool has not adapted well.
Other factors play a role too, from our soccer culture to the developmental changes in our youth system over the past 10 years.
When you look at everything, we are experiencing a clear downturn in what was traditionally our strongest position. Hopefully some of the younger guys can step up and make this position a strength again.
