By Charles Boehm
WASHINGTON – The United States has churned out so many quality goalkeepers over the past 20 years that fans tend to take them for granted: Tony Meola, Juergen Sommer, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Brad Guzan are just a few.
But what if the flow of that dependable pipeline dropped to a trickle?
Coaches like Matt Pasquinelli have accepted that idea as a very real possibility, and are working to prevent it from happening.
Last week the GKs coach for George Washington University’s men’s soccer team hosted 63 netminders aged 13 through 19 at his annual 192SQFT Goalkeeping Academy at GWU’s Mt. Vernon Campus in Northwest D.C., with the guidance of veteran English GKs coaches Eric Steele (Manchester United) and Andy Quy (Stoke City FC). Afterwards he discussed the pitfalls facing young U.S. ‘keepers in a frank conversation with Soccerwire.com.
“There are people within the national team program that are goalkeepers that don’t deserve to be there,” Pasquinelli said. “There are boys in MLS that have no reason to be there – the team has put everything behind the boy when in reality, they know and everyone else in the professional community knows they’re not good enough.
“There are boys sitting the bench, boys playing in the USL that have the abilities, have the technical aspects, the tactical, the physical, the mental to be strong, and to go forward, and have the right to prove themselves, and aren’t being given that.”
Pasquinelli’s camp – a partnership between him, Quy and Andy Davies, another member of the Stoke coaching staff, has grown steadily in its three years of existence and he’s now mulling expansion to other locations in Texas and Florida.
He says it also drew several professional goalkeepers released from their North American clubs in order to take in Steele and Quy’s expertise, and his British guests even tabbed “four or five” prospects last week who they believe are capable of pursuing a top-level professional career (Pasquinelli declines to discuss the identities of the young players in question).
But he harbors grave doubts about the depth and intensity of the training young goalkeepers receive on a day-to-day basis across the United States, especially in the pivotal early-teenage years.
“There are four or five here that, from an [age] 13, 14, 15 perspective, are very strong,” said Pasquinelli, a former pro who had the misfortune to begin his career just as the old North American Soccer League was dying. “But what kind of development are they going to really get right now in the next three years – physical, mental, technical, tactical development. Are they going to get that at the [U.S.] academies?
“Well, a lot of the academies really don’t employ goalkeeping coaches and it’s narrowed down to one night a week,” he added. “I have five boys here that have access to European passports that I’ve taken to [pro] clubs. They’re interested, but now the next two to three years are critical for them.”
Navigating the complex immigration policies of the United Kingdom and the European Union remains a huge hurdle for ambitious American players. But Pasquinelli is adament that the intense, GK-focused training environments found on the opposite side of the Atlantic are a necessity for efficiently maximizing their potential, even if it starts with, say, an adolescent leaving home early on a student visa.
“Eric and Andy are very, very interested on the 13- to 15[-year-old] level right now,” he said of the EPL-savvy duo’s quiet Stateside scouting efforts. “It’s very, very difficult for them to take a 23- or 24-year-old – what are they going to do with them? The reality is, is that boy any better than what they have currently at their clubs? It’s difficult for a 24-year-old to come in and compete.
“But at the 14, 15 age group, that’s a different thing altogether.”
Pasquinelli readily confesses that he, too, gains new perspectives, from the Englishmen, citing one of the camp’s technical sessions on breakaways.
“American goalkeepers are taught today that you rush out and try to smother the ball,” he said. “That doesn’t work in today’s game, with the speed of players and their ability to keep the ball tight to their feet. Their overall speed is just lightning, so it calls for a different way of approaching those type of one-on-one situations.
“It was extremely eye-opening and when you’re sitting there talking to Eric, you realize that Peter Scheichel, Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster, Joe Hart, David De Gea, these are all his boys. He helped make these men. I turned to some of the coaches and said, ‘At moments like this I have a hard time getting it around my head that he’s sitting here at George Washington University on this soccer pitch!’…From a goalkeeping perspective it was mind-boggling.”
Even though he suggests that the country is not putting its youth goalkeepers in the best possible position to success, Pasquinelli, Steele and their staff were impressed by the grit, intellect and work ethic of their campers over the course of six-hour days that sought to test them both physically and mentally.
The traditional Yank spirit and drive is there – it’s a question of how best to mold it.
“They’re just really, really happy with the standard and the enthusiasm of the kids and the level of their abilities, and their enthusiasm and their willingness to take new things in and learn them – a very, very positive thing,” said Pasquinelli. “Eric has said time and time again, he is just absolutely amazed at the attitude of American kids.”