When you look at a lot of No. 1 international goalkeepers, most of them are also starters at club level, however Matt Turner is a rare exception for the U.S. men’s national team.
Turner recently completed his first season with English Premier League side Nottingham Forest, jumping right into Steve Cooper’s squad during the first half of the campaign before also featuring under Nuno Espírito Santo’s early time with the club in 2024.
However, Matz Sels arrival at the club last January eventually forced Turner to the bench, a spot where he remained for every league match from February 4 to May 19’s season finale.
Turner did feature in Forest’s final three FA Cup matches in January and February, while also logging 210 minutes in the USMNT’s March CONCACAF Nations League triumphs over Jamaica and Mexico. Now he’s back with Gregg Berhalter’s squad seeking to reclaim his No. 1 spot and play a vital role in pre-Copa America friendlies vs. Colombia and Brazil before the start of the tournament on June 23.
“I approach training every single day with the same mentality, whether I’m playing or whether I’m not,” Turner said in a press conference. “I work really, really hard. I try to get better in every area that I can and just be ready. I prepare for games as if I’m going to be playing, as exhausting as that can be; that hope that maybe my name will be on the team sheet for that game, even though when I know probably in the back of my mind it’s not. I prepare like maybe it will be. What if it is?
“So I try to just maintain that level of professionalism every single day, every training session and just keep going and understanding that obviously if I want to keep this shirt here, I’ve got to perform when I come here,” he added. “So I have to stay engaged, I have to stay ready and focused and driven.”
While Turner struggled for consistent minutes during Forest’s 2024 schedule, Ethan Horvath did not. Horvath played in each of the final 16 league matches for EFL Championship side Cardiff City this season, after making a permanent move there from Nottingham Forest in January.
The 28-year-old has mainly served as Turner’s backup with the USMNT over recent years, making just two appearances since 2022 despite his improving club role in England’s second-tier.
Turner will expect competition yet again from Horvath this June and admitted he’ll do everything he can to keep his job after a first season in a new environment.
“I think I’ve just become overall a lot more adaptive. I’ve had to learn how to do certain things maybe I wasn’t so comfortable with on the fly,” Turner said. “I think I’ve become a lot better at dealing with balls into the area, coming for crosses, defending the space behind my back line as well. And yeah, going through hard times on the pitch sometimes and then having to level out and put in a good performance after.
“I’ve changed so much as a person in my family life, as a player and I’ll just continue to use every experience that I get as fuel to drive me forward and keep getting better and keep being a guy, whether it be a good or a bad experience, that has a smile on my face that guys can look up to,” he added.
my deal is this. in actual NT games he’s obviously The Guy, most consistent quality performance. so hand him the 1 shirt and play him some percentage of the games. but they have never really tested or sorted the 2 and 3 keepers. horvath can go to sleep on his near post and nearly lose to salvador and he’ll be back again. seanjohn’s career is mostly a bunch of january games and then playing st. kitts in gold cup.
so — and god forbid we do what used to work fine before — give the obvious 1 the tournament off and tryout 2 and 3 options so we actually know if the backups would hold up if turner went out hurt or we ever decided to make a change.
but we have this weird mix of “run out the usual guys because we need to win” and yet being scared if the subs were out there we might lose because of it. if you trust the subs that little, it says something.
that aside, said it before, this concern with club form is silly if a player is superior in cap games. now if turner shows up and starts messing up, and is maybe rusty from sitting, then club factors in. but until turner’s NT game starts to suffer, please quit borrowing trouble. or did we not learn this lesson from reyna.
if i wanted to get more punchy, a US coach can evaluate what’s in front of him in controlled circumstances with the pool at his beckon. he is probably only guessing what is going on at club x if he starts taking box scores or unused subs as “meaning something.” he isn’t watching dortmund or forest practices, he doesn’t know, and he shouldn’t read into things. and my whole part on the lampard thing is i’d be very picky which club coaches i took their analysis of my player as more definitive than my own.
“ if i wanted to get more punchy, a US coach can evaluate what’s in front of him in controlled circumstances with the pool at his beckon. he is probably only guessing what is going on at club x if he starts taking box scores or unused subs as “meaning something.” he isn’t watching dortmund or forest practices, he doesn’t know, and he shouldn’t read into things.” The US manager whether Berhalter or those before him are in contact with the teams. They do know what is going on in practice and why a guy is playing or not. At times they even visit training or the NT scouts based in Europe visit. It’s also why they are in consistent contact with players in the pool. It’s so hilarious that you think USSoccer just looks at the box score and picks its rosters.
you ignored the primary thrust of my comment, read below. this is primarily about 2 and 3 keepers. 2 and 3 keepers rarely see the field for us and my whole point is they barely earn their job and don’t really compete for it.
your rant about supposed scouting of club practices and constant contact with club coaches, what does it have to do USA EVALUATING BACKUP PLAYERS RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER? you’re just engaged in more “club form” and “personal attack” nonsense largely decontextualized from the thrust of my post.
if you want to pick our keepers based on random practice visits or phone calls to the manager in eupen, have at it. i think it’s common freaking sense to once in a while have the 2 or 3 play a meaningful few games to see if they have a clue in a USA shirt. this is so simply true and logical i have to wonder about anyone protesting it.
to be crystal clear, on reyna, sargent, and a list of others, yeah, we do seem to care too much about numbers that month and not enough about talent. sargent is redundant of and worse than several strikers. seriously, tell me that’s not box score watching. please. i dare you.
” — and god forbid we do what used to work fine before — give the obvious 1 the tournament off and tryout 2 and 3 options so we actually know if the backups would hold up if turner went out hurt or we ever decided to make a change.”
Oh really? When did we do that?
The only time I can remember the obvious #1 ( Timmy) getting subbed out by the #2 ( Guzan) was in the last Group game of the 2009 Confederations Cup, after Brazil had just whipped the USMNT 3-0. Brad pitched a 3-0 shutout and we advanced and the rest was history.
I never read a clear cut explanation from Bob for the change but one theory was that Bob wanted to give Timmy a break after the bad loss. Supposedly, Timmy had some minor knocks and when the game started it seemed like we were likely to go out anyway.
It didn’t turn out that way. That certainly doesn’t fit your description. And if they did that in the Gold Cup or Nations League, so what? Playing well in the Gold Cup or Nations League has nothing to do with the kind of pressure you’d have to handle in the World Cup.
first off, you couldn’t have really read my post which was about who the backups should be, and carving out some time where turner sits so they can compete for the roles using game minutes instead of spreadsheets or eye tests in practices.
second, even if i bit on the bait here, under GB we tend to just hand the job for extended periods to someone like steffen or turner. there isn’t really a time period when 2-3 keepers battle it out for the job. we pick someone. they start several games in a row. we let someone else do january or the st. kitts game. you are confusing that outcome for it being “obvious” who should start, or be the 2nd or 3rd. the 1 consumes the vast majority of minutes. the 2 and 3 cart water bottles and clipboards, then often enough flub their lines if they see a competitive game. (it’s hard to screw up st. kitts)
What’s kind of frustrating about his situation is that the two other keepers on the roster at the end both put up worse numbers than Matt. Vlacho was a complete disaster, obviously, but Sels was also worse judging by PSXG-G (which, tbf, I do have issues with as a stat). And in his time in goal, Matt was actually statistically one of the best in the PL in claiming crosses and distributing accurately (some of his footwork notwithstanding). Clearly being quietly but consistently bad is a better way to keep a job in the PL than having a few obvious gaffs.
Also, given the consistently poor numbers for all of Forrest’s keepers and noting that they weren’t really out of line with the numbers for both keepers they played last year, maybe there’s something up with the team, like they might just be bad at defending certain situations. But that clearly takes more than even a coaching change to fix.
Agreed. Hopefully he either wins the Job back at Forest or he doesn’t delay in finding a new team. Sels isn’t better than Matt.
nkh,
“Clearly being quietly but consistently bad is a better way to keep a job in the PL than having a few obvious gaffs.”
Clearly, no one statistically separated themselves from the others.
They all suck. So ,when every keeper is more or less the same, then the guy with “the few obvious gaffs ” sticks out like a sore thumb.
The fans and more importantly, the players probably aren’t going over the stats in their head during the game but they will remember your spectacular howler and be nervous about it. And nervousness quickly spreads through a defense like the plague.
I am confident that if they had stuck with Matt instead of Sels that things probably would have worked out to be the same.
But that’s hindsight. And it is really easy for me to say. Sels was not fantastic but he was solid enough and Nuno, a keeper himself , had bigger problems elsewhere to worry about.
Matt’s job was to give Nuno no choice but to pick him. He failed to do that. He was given a shot at being the starter. He blew it. When you are in a relegation battle you don’t often get second chances. As far as I’m concerned this is mostly on Matt.
As fans we forget that club managers are there for their clubs not for the USMNT.
Nuno’s job is not to get the best out of Matt. Nuno’s job is to find someone who will play keeper consistently enough so that the team can get the results they need. Sels did that.
Well said.
For some reason I find English crowds to be more anxiety ridden and they have a way of transmitting their nervousness to the players. If you make a gaffe, then it’s like they expect you to make another one and the groans become loud in anticipation. So weird.
To counter that, why would a team spend money bringing in a new guy who is no better. That’s just a poor coaching decision/management decision. Obviously we only have the analysis of the performance on the field. Who knows, maybe Sels is either awesome in training or just such a great “vibes” guy that Nuno feels compelled to play him. I’m sure he has his reasons. But I think that the decision to go out and spend on a replacement who put up worse stats while participating a team performance that was unlikely better than what they would have gotten with the status quo indicates that this is an organization that isn’t really thinking carefully about solving their problems.
And none of what has been said by anyone here dimishines what should be Matt’s frustration at being replaced by a guy whose numbers are worse and with whom the team did no better.
nkh
“To counter that, why would a team spend money bringing in a new guy who is no better. That’s just a poor coaching decision/management decision.”
No one does that intentionally. But until you bring the guy in and play him for real you just don’t know. All new transfers, regardless of price or cost, are a gamble. Some are better than others. This is proven in the EPL and elsewhere every single transfer window.
Forest had a really good keeper in Samba. They wouldn’t pay him what he wanted so he moved on. If they had just paid him, it would have cost them a lot less than the process they are going through now trying to replace him.
This is not an exact science and no amount of money can guarantee success as Manchester United, and Chelsea, for instance, prove every single season.
“Obviously we only have the analysis of the performance on the field. ”
That is the only analysis that matters.
“Who knows, maybe Sels is either awesome in training or just such a great “vibes” guy that Nuno feels compelled to play him. I’m sure he has his reasons. But I think that the decision to go out and spend on a replacement who put up worse stats while participating a team performance that was unlikely better than what they would have gotten with the status quo indicates that this is an organization that isn’t really thinking carefully about solving their problems…And none of what has been said by anyone here dimishines what should be Matt’s frustration at being replaced by a guy whose numbers are worse and with whom the team did no better.”
It’s not about numbers. Its about how the team does when you play.
Stats can tell us how YOU did, not necessarily how the team did.
The stats that matter are how many points did the team have when Sels was in there vs. how many points did they have with Matt in there.
Sels was in there when they made the run to secure their safety, so you can’t say “they did no better” with him.
And I did not see anyone here say Matt shouldn’t feel bad.
He blew his starting shot.
He’s close to being unemployed.
He can’t beat out a bunch of crap keepers.
He’s comparatively old.
He failed here and at Arsenal, who by the way looked pretty shaky at keeper after he left so what does that tell you about how much they rated him, if they let him go?
Matt is going to need a bit of luck if he still wants to keep playing in the EPL or at that level elsewhere.
I don’t know what he has going on behind the scenes but for me it would be a good idea if he stands on his head in Copa America and shuts out all our opponents. That kind of positive PR never hurts.
I could have told you Sels wouldn’t be better. His numbers in a worse league were already not better than Turner’s. I know GK is still a difficult position to evaluate, but this was a clear case of a panic buy. And even you somehow think a player’s specific stats are somehow uninformitive and we can only go by how the team as a whole does with that player in the lineup, which doesn’t really make a lot of sense, he didn’t improve the team performances. This was just a dumb lateral move by the organization.
“I could have told you Sels wouldn’t be better. His numbers in a worse league were already not better than Turner’s. I know GK is still a difficult position to evaluate, but this was a clear case of a panic buy.”
Panic buys sometimes work out, as this case shows.
“And even you somehow think a player’s specific stats are somehow uninformitive”
They are not uninformative but they do not guarantee anything.
“and we can only go by how the team as a whole does with that player in the lineup, which doesn’t really make a lot of sense, he didn’t improve the team performances.”
Yeah he did improve them. They did not get relegated and with Matt playing they looked like they might. Had they stuck with Matt they might have stayed up anyway. But there is no way to prove that.
That is where Matt failed. He caused Nuno to lose faith in him. And faith is the only reason Nuno would have stayed with Matt.
“This was just a dumb lateral move by the organization.”
It is better to be lucky than good.