EVERYBODY SOCCER bill reno

Continuing my four part series where we dive into the history of American goalkeeping. In the first episode, Steve Holroyd helped shed some light on the pre-NASL years and how American goalkeepers featured into the landscape. In our second episode we have Dr. Joe Machnik to talk about the next chapter in American goalkeeping with the NASL-era. In the previous talk, we mentioned the lack of goalkeeping education and how goalkeepers were largely on their own figuring out the position day-by-day. But here we start to see the beginnings of the American goalkeeping framework through the Dr. Machnik’s goalkeeper camps.

It was really difficult not to turn the conversation into me just asking him a bunch of questions about his career as one doesn’t end up in the US Soccer Hall of Fame by staying inside every day, but Dr. Machnik is the perfect guest to talk about this time as someone who watched it, participated in it, and shaped it for many years to come.

In this episode, we juuust scratch the surface of goalkeeping as we talk to - in my opinion - one of the hardest working scouts in American soccer. No he’s not employed by the USSF, he’s just the “USMNT Prospects” guy. 

If you’re a fan of keeping up with the men youth national teams then you’ve likely seen the account “USMNT Prospects” somewhere on your social media, which is single-handily ran by Daniel, who puts in countless hours for a consistent stream covering our country’s men youth scene.

From my perspective, he’s the best at what he does. I can’t deny the hard work he puts into publishing tangible and accountable content. Overwhelmingly, most youth national team-based outlets speak in extremely vague terms, outsource a lot of their opinions to other outlets, and have little interest in being held accountable for what they say or put out there. However Daniel does a great job of admitting when he was wrong, as well as smashing you in the face with new names every week of players that are largely based here in the US. For USMNT fans who want something real and honest, Daniel is the guy to go. You may not always agree with what he writes, I don’t always agree with what he writes, but you know it’s real and honest at the end of the day.

I really enjoyed my time talking with Daniel. We cover less about his methodology and speak more generally about the scouting scene and his hopes for it in the future. Please consider subbing to his Patreon, which is USMNTProsepcts. For just $5/month, it’s a great way to keep up with the men’s national team prospects, as well as supporting the work he puts it into it.

I’m excited to kick off a four-part series where we look back into the history of American goalkeeping. Where did it start? What did it look like? And how did it change over the years?

Historian Steve Holroyd - who has been a crucial cornerstone for my understanding of the history of the sport - helps me piece together all these questions as we dive into the pre-NASL era, which comprises of the “golden age” of the first American Soccer League (from 1921 to 1931) and the semi-pro era, which goes right up until 1967, at the start of the NASL.

In a time before the existence of goalkeeper coaches, goalkeeper camps, Instagram, or TikTok influences, you just have a person trying to figure out how to play a position all on their own. So with Steve, we talk about how teams attacked in this era, what was unique to the time, and what other outside factors influenced a goalkeeper’s style of play.

Although I’d be remised to overlook Jimmy Douglas’s 1930 World Cup run, Frank Borghi’s 1950 World Cup shutout against England, and, of course, other Hall of Fame goalkeepers such as Peter Renzulli, George Title, Stanley Chesney, and Gene Olaff. We don’t get into the micro-side of things with these players careers and, instead, discuss the macro-side of what was happening on the field stylistically speaking. So enjoy the first of a four-part series on the history of American goalkeeping.

Bill Reno and soccer historian Steve Holroyd discuss US soccer’s unfortunate return to the “Soccer Wars”. Yes, our country has plenty of history with multiple leagues fighting for control, even with our federation. So we turn to Steve to help us understand what’s come before so we can see where we’re going. As Steve states it so well, “past is prologue”.

We start off with the battle between MLS and the USSF over the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. For those out of the loop, MLS doesn’t want to participate in the Cup, citing schedule congestion as its main problem. And despite the Cup being named after Lamar Hunt, who largely bankrolled MLS to survive its early years, MLS has little interest in preserving the history of the cup, nor open competition against lower levels. Steve discusses the parallels in previous leagues’ similar attempts, long before MLS was ever an idea for anyone.

We then transition to diving into the women’s game with the new sanction of another division 1 league: the USL Super League, which kicks off Fall 2024. It indirectly challenges the NWSL, the long-established top league in, not only our country, but also the world. There is a bit of crossover in conversations with the previous topic but similarly, we cover what the past teaches us about two leagues chances of sustaining each other and what’s different in 2024.

Today we cover a few topics within the US goalkeeping scene. We start off comparing US men’s national team goalkeeping standards from now vs. 20 years ago. Where were we and where we now? How are our gks (specifically Zack Steffen, Matt Turner, and Ethan Horvath) performing overseas? What is going right/wrong?

From there we jump to the US Open Cup debacle, where MLS attempted to pull their first teams out of the most prestigious tournament in North America. We look at micro level in how the Open Cup helps goalkeepers in both MLS and lower leagues, as well as macro level in how the Open Cup and MLS operate and should be operating together.

Lastly, we finish with the NWSL draft and how young gks get drafted only to (most likely) sit the bench for a year or two. Is this healthy for gk development or are there better ways to grow our young goalkeepers?

Chad Prickett is a former goalkeeper from the University of Kentucky and is now the founder of Columbus Goalkeeper Academy. His passion for the position made him the perfect person to talk to about development for teenage goalkeepers, specifically the connection between three training environments: individual training, team practice, and games.

Although those three areas have a lot of nuance that we don’t quite get all the way into - the difference from coaching male and female gks, areas of the country, styles of play within certain clubs - our main focus with this podcast was to survey how our country approaches each of the three - again, individual training, team practice, and game. We talk about why they’re important, how we’re connecting the three areas to one another, and where we’re currently succeeding/failing within each one.