Zack Steffen entered the June U.S. men’s national team camp ready to challenge for the No. 1 goalkeeper job, but the veteran shot-stopper will unfortunately have to wait for a future opportunity to do so.
Steffen has left USMNT camp to undergo further examination for a knee injury suffered in training, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday. The Colorado Rapids goalkeeper has returned to his club team as part of the plan.
The 30-year-old has registered three clean sheets in 11 MLS appearances for the Rapids this season. Steffen returned to the United States ahead of the 2024 MLS season and has become the Rapids No. 1 goalkeeper since.
Steffen made his name with the Columbus Crew over three seasons before also featuring for Manchester City, Middlesbrough, and Fortuna Dusseldorf.
The Pennsylvania native has earned 30 USMNT caps to date, being part of the 2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League-winning squad.
Steffen’s departure likely means that Matt Turner will occupy the No. 1 job heading into friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland later this month.
NYCFC’s Matt Freese and the Chicago Fire’s Chris Brady will also fight for minutes. Columbus Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte also left camp due to an injury.
so the question becomes does the coach reflexively start turner the whole tournament out of status quo and fear, just like berhalter did. i’m personally not a brady/freese fan but they need to trial some fresh faces. as in actually put them in games, not just invite them to camp then play turner.
i think he wanted steffen to get a rep or two this summer but “out/diminished with a knee” is par for the course for several years. part of my concern with poch and his choices is they seem to take place at a very superficial level of either statistics or some brush with a player not updated to present day. yeah, you might have bumped into steffen in EPL. he didn’t play much then hurt his knee. so what. we’ve known this since before the last world cup. ideally your coach is ahead of that curve and not trailing it. the one positive movement at keeper is we quit calling seanjohn. that’s about it. otherwise we’re as stuck on turner as when he was hired.
and no kochen where he’d at least be ticking off some caps towards tied down.
we aren’t accomplishing much, are we? people need to learn that sometimes the goal needs to be learning some things and not just playing games chasing Ws. and if you trip over the right new things maybe Ws come more often.
What a game between France and Spain.
Both Roma and Udinese looking to sign Josh Sargent.
And Johnny to Athletico done on personal terms the clubs negotiating. Reportedly only off by 10 million on initial offers 30 million to 40 million. Hoping this takes awhile so we don’t lose Johnny for GC as well.
Yeah. Hopefully Atletico says stay with the Nationsl team.
More bad news…
Sergino Dest has been left off the U.S. men’s national team’s final Gold Cup roster, U.S. Soccer announced on Thursday, after it was determined that the fullback would be better served continuing his recovery from an ACL injury
Dest has been replaced in the squad by John Tolkin, who joins the USMNT after a standout debut half-season in the Bundesliga for Holstein Kiel.
The rest of the roster remains unchanged. After naming a 27-player squad with four goalkeepers ahead of the 26-player cutdown, the USMNT saw Zack Steffen depart camp with an injury, leaving the team with the required three of Matt Turner, Matt Freese and Chris Brady for the Gold Cup.
What the……???
Did Dest drop out too? MLS has Tolkien added and no Dest.
Yep Dest is out now too. Looks like Freeman will get extensive experience.
He was already listed on an MLS injury list weeks ago…… I was wondering why he was on the active roster
Different injury. Rapids were resting him for an oblique injury so he could be ready for NT.
Well on a positive note Mathis Albert was put on Dortmunds CWC squad.
He’s traveling with the team to train, I’m not sure if he’s going to be on match day rosters. US eligible Tyler Meiser (18 yr old DM, CB) is also traveling with the team. Campbell, Reyna, and Albert have all been in Dortmund released training photos.
Meiser may not be there. One Dortmund blogger says he has not been at training yet.
Another positive, US U18s defeated Argentina 2-0. They are on top of their group in UEFA Friendship Cup, Jaidyn Contreras (FCD) and Braden Dunham (AtlU) the goals, Dills (Eint.Frank) and Klapjia (RB Leipzig) with the assists. They drew with France 2-2 (won the pks) after giving up 2g in stoppage time. Morales (InterMia) and Ellis (Orl) with the goals. They play Australia next.
Those are positives.
U17s lost 3-2 to Sweden on Thursday. Both goals from Chase Adams (Crew II), Cupps (Chi) and Johnson (Phil) the assists. They play Canada Saturday. Really only missing Mathis Albert and Birchimas from this group.