EVERYBODY SOCCER bill reno

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.

FC United’s Stan Anderson and Bill Reno take a deep dive on the USMNT goalkeeper depth chart. Prior to recording, Stan and Bill ranked their top USMNT goalkeeping options, then averaged the lists together, then counted up the list from 25 to 1. Check the episode notes to jump to a specific section in the podcast

As an aside: I’ve been wanting to do something similar for the USWNT yet I’ve been unable to find a buyer. If you or someone you know knows the USWNT goalkeeping pool and can talk about it beyond a couple of names, please reach out to me at billrenogk@gmail.com.

Stan Anderson and Bill Reno discuss the current pecking order with the men’s national team after the most recent national team starter, Zack Steffen, had two poor games back-to-back, one with Manchester City against Liverpool in an FA Cup semifinal and another with the national team against Costa Rica to round out World Cup qualifying. If you haven’t watched the highlights, I’d recommend taking a look, as we loosely describe the errors - but it might make a little more sense if one were to have seen the games.

We then take a look at the micro and the macro of it all, diving into the positives and weaknesses of Steffen’s game, as well as problems with the entire iceberg that is American goalkeeping. We cover what needs to happen going into the World Cup, as well as some outside the box solutions that the internet has been kind enough to through out there.

Round 2 of the MLS goalkeeping core review, once again featuring Stan Anderson from FC United and Camp Shutout! We’re finishing up with the eastern conference today, going through all 14 teams’ goalkeeping depth charts. We dive back into the same approach as we did yesterday, going over history and expectations for the goalkeepers and then a grade for the entire goalkeeping core. Check the episode notes if you’re wanting to hear about a certain team!

If you missed the western conference review, that episode dropped previously if you’re looking for even more MLS goalkeeping content.