The U.S. men’s national team will have a new head of goalkeeping later this summer.
Fabian Otte has been hired to the position and will officially begin his new role at the conclusion of the current German Bundesliga campaign. Otte is currently goalkeeping coach for Borussia Moenchengladbach and previously served as an assistant coach during the USMNT’s international window last September.
In addition to serving as the goalkeeping coach for the USMNT, Otte will be responsible for developing the goalkeeping pathway through all of the Men’s Youth National Teams.
“Fabian brings a tremendous amount of experience, talent and innovation to the goalkeeper coaching position,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter said. “Not only will he be a great part of the Men’s National Team staff, he will also contribute to the development of the entire goalkeeping department within U.S. Soccer.”
Otte has served in his current role since 2021 and overall has worked in five countries to date. He previously worked as goalkeeping coach for Hoffenheim’s U-23 team, as well as assistant goalkeeper coach for English Premier League side Burnley.
“I’m very excited for the new challenge of leading the USMNT goalkeeping department on the road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With the tournament being hosted in North America, there is no greater opportunity to have an impact,” Otte said. “With great ambition and passion I hope to help evolve the training and education of the goalkeeping coaches and players across the Federation.”
The USMNT has a busy schedule this year with the 2024 Copa America, as well as the Summer Olympics in Paris, France on the horizon.
IV,
“…— though i would like to see a dolo or dempsey coached team —…”
A dempsey coached team???…are you serious?…or are you just saying that for effect?
“but for a period of time we were among the world’s best keepers. i think we could teach the world a thing or two.”
Like what? Kasey, Brad and later Timmy were great but while they may have been among the best, they were not the best keepers in the World when they were in their pomp.
And even if they were , it wasn’t enough to make the USMNT a serious World Cup contender. It didn’t make their USMNTs any more legit than today’s team. Whatever is wrong with the USMNT, the keeper position is so far down the list as to be insignificant. Unless they are scoring, keepers don’t win you games.
Plus you’re conveniently ignoring that Matt has been great for the USMNT.
He sucks for Forest and will soon lose his job but USMNT fans have nothing to complain about when it comes to Matt. You want the USMNT to go back to no sweeper keeper? They beat you to it, a while ago.
“We went awry when we bought into sweeper-keeper and the idea of building from the back. i think we were utterly ineffective trying to play that way, with players not skilled right to do it. with turner we have switched back to an old school keeper. we no longer need european sweeper keeper coaching. we need old school stay at home keeper teaching. that i am sure we have in abundance from the past 40 years.”
And you want to convert all our young American keepers into the new Brad Friedel thereby impacting their potential to find employment whether here or elsewhere? Good luck with that.
Tim Howard has never been a coach/manager, Friedel was fired as a manager in 2019 and hasn’t coached since, Keller briefly worked with MNT/YNT in 2013 but has been mainly coaching a high school team alongside Marcus Hahnemann. Nick Rimando runs camps and helps with RSL Academy. I’m not saying none of those guys could do the job. They just don’t seem very interested in it at the moment.
Think of all of the time and space wasted on Jonathan Klinsmann, who was terrible.
with the US’ history of keeper success and development it’s odd we have to outsource this. i mean there are the big NT names. there are a few decades of above average league keepers. why do i need some no name keeper coach from europe?
The coach isn’t for you.
Tim Howard pretty much began trending down after the 2014 World Cup as did Guzan. Ten years is long enough to realize that Kasey and Brad aren’t walking into the locker room anymore.
On the other hand the real development of the iUjjainnext great American keeper will happen in the Academy or at the clubs.
This new guy is closing the barn door after the animals leave.
He can’t hurt but his impact is diluted by virtue of his positioning in a young keeper’s life.
i am not sure what “trending down” means for a keeper coach. yes, they were no longer great players. what does that matter for a coach?
re career paths, i think you’re confusing a choice with what has to happen. i mean, we had klinsi for a coach. klinsi was a massive deal as a player. by your theory he’s too good to bother with a coaching phase in his life. ditto zidane, etc. the two finalist coaches last world cup were former players, one excellent (deschamps). i think it’s unusual we have so few key forces of our soccer history in the coaching staff. no landon, keller, friedel, dempsey, etc. instead we’re coached by a journeyman bench back known for a shot that didn’t score in an elimination game we lost (as well as losing his one final as a club coach). [any surprise we seem more concerned with pressing and defense that scoring a goal? to have not really thought out how that is to happen?]
i buy that a chunk of the work on making a keeper is done in development but i think you have field players confused with keepers on through what age. keepers peak later and have longer careers. people assume keepers like gaga have a few years to grow. methinks you are indulging in the inaccurate, british-derived assumption we should trust the clubs for everything. meanwhile france with clairefontaine is the one winning world cups or at least making the final.
so maybe i don’t buy i want my fate stuck in the hands of, say, the GK coaches at some of the worst MLS teams out there, eg, TFC, colorado. that “is” who you want to entrust. i want a good keeper teaching them the few weeks a year they are in our hands.
IV.
“by your theory ” It’s not my theory.
And you, shockingly, missed the point.
1. Great players do not necessarily make great coaches.
This has been true since at least before Bruce Arena was born. There are literally thousands of examples in every sport you can think of. For example there is Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo just for starters. Great players, not the best coaches. Yet.
And on the flip side, players who were limited, lacking talent and just not that good sometimes make fantastic to very good coaches. Take for example, Jose Mourinho, Tommy Lasorda, Phil Jackson ( I saw him play a long time with the Knicks, he was not great) and Bruce “Couva” Arena.
The reality is most coaches are probably somewhere in between on that spectrum.
Maybe Timmy, Kasey, Brad, Guzan, Nicky Rimando etc. would make great keeper coaches . Or not. Maybe they have other things to do with the rest of their lives.
We have had a number of fine keepers but that doesn’t mean that Slonina is going to become great by osmosis if he just hangs out with them for a week once a year.
Coaching and developing a young keeper can be a full time job. It is also a completely different job from actually being a good keeper.
Being a good player in any sport does not automatically make you a good coach of that sport.
2. I don’t know anything about Fabian Otto other than the fact that he has a good name. He may be the best in the business and his position is not likely to hurt anything but he’s not going to turn Slonina or any of our other kids into Courtois, Ederson or Navas.
Not with as much time as he is likely to spend with any of them. He’s certainly not likely to have enough time to fix Matt’s feet.
A national team goal keeper coach is too little too late.
National teams use players, they don’t develop them. Gregg proved that by wasting 22+ caps on Ferreira trying to turn him into an international class #9 when all he really was at that level, was a backup.
We’re stuck with him so hopefully Gregg learned that what you do is encourage a guy like Pepi to go through the learning process in Europe, and then, when he actually knows what the fuck he is doing, that’s when you cap him.
That’s a good guideline for capping players, don’t call them up if they can’t play or don’t know what the fuck they are doing.
Your post reminded of me of that joyous moment when Maradona and Messi lifted the World Cup, manager and player at the final in 2010. Oh that’s right being a great player has very little to do with being a great manager. Scaloni had 7 caps, yet lifted the cup for Argentina. Klinsmann is one loss from being run out of South Korea after drawing Malaysia and Bahrain. We’ve seen Pirlo struggle on the sidelines. Frank Lampard won the CL but has been fired by Chelsea and Everton and is currently unemployed. Landon Donovan never won anything managing San Diego Loyal. Cherundolo had an 18% winning percentage at Las Vegas and despite having one of the most talented rosters has only won one cup with LAFC. By the way he was just out coached by Wilfred Nancy who was a seldom used reserve in the French Fourth Division. Nancy by the way a defender by trade has devised one of the most aggressive offensive systems, leading MLS in goals scored this season.
Me: ‘These millions of Americans coaching & playing this sport!’
GB: ‘No, there’s not!’
Swiss assistant coach, and now a German GK coach?! Glad, I’m not the only one like, why?
i think we can debate whether we should have a foreign field player coach — though i would like to see a dolo or dempsey coached team — but for a period of time we were among the world’s best keepers. i think we could teach the world a thing or two.
i think we went awry when we bought into sweeper-keeper and the idea of building from the back. i think we were utterly ineffective trying to play that way, with players not skilled right to do it. with turner we have switched back to an old school keeper. we no longer need european sweeper keeper coaching. we need old school stay at home keeper teaching. that i am sure we have in abundance from the past 40 years.