With the recent squad announcement for the United States National Men’s Team regarding the upcoming matches against Ecuador and Chile, as well as some beef between two USA international keepers on who is superior, it’s a good time to take a good look at the options for the USMNT going forward.

The Players:

Brad Guzan, Atlanta United, 60 caps:

At the ripe old age of 34, many people expect Guzan to start taking a step back in his role with the national team. But as Tim Howard has shown us, he could be in and around the squad for the next couple years. Currently playing in the MLS, Guzan registered over 150 appearances in the Premier League over nine seasons with Aston Villa and Middlesbrough.

Zack Steffen, Columbus Crew, 8 caps:

Currently only 23, Steffen’s impressive performances in the MLS (including the 2018 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award) have gotten him a move to Manchester City in the summer of 2019. Steffen’s young career shows a lot of promise and he was recently named the 2018 US Soccer Male Athlete of the Year.

Ethan Horvath, Club Brugge, 3 caps:

The youngest player on this list and the only to currently play his football outside of the USA, Horvath has experience not only in a UEFA Top 10 league, but also in Europeans competitions like the Champions League (where he recorded a clean sheet against Dortmund, Monaco, and Atletico Madrid).

Sean Johnson, NYCFC, 6 caps:

After appearing with the Chicago Fire for seven seasons, Johnson has established himself as a top MLS keeper with the NYCFC over the past two seasons. Johnson is also eligible for the Jamaican National Team.

Bill Hamid, DC United, 6 caps:

Hamid had a rough spell after leaving MLS for Nordsjaelland in the Danish League. Though he has the Danish League title to add to his resume, he rode the bench for two years while in Europe before coming back to the MLS and DC United in the summer of 2018.

Analysis:

So now that we have established our current candidates for the USMNT, lets compare:

Our first table unfortunately will leave Ethan Horvath out since he has no MLS experience and therefore is harder to compare to the other four.

Player: MLS League Appearances: Goals Allowed: Clean Sheets: Goals Against per Game: Clean Sheets per Game: Brad Guzan 129 164 42 1.271 0.326 Zack Steffen 65 87 20 1.338 0.308 Sean Johnson 242 332 54 1.372 0.223 Bill Hamid 200 245 59 1.225 0.295

These numbers simply cannot be taken at face value unfortunately. Team quality has a huge factor in Goals Against and Clean Sheets, for example Sean Johnson was a member of the Chicago Fire for 7 seasons and only made the playoffs once, surely bringing his numbers down. If we adjust to only Sean Johnson’s numbers with NYCFC his numbers are as follows:

MLS League Appearances: Goals Allowed: Clean Sheets: Goals Against per Game: Clean Sheets per Game: 66 82 18 1.242 0.273

Much better looking for the late-blooming Johnson.

If we put these into an order of best to worst for Goals Against per Game:

Player: Goals Against per Game: Bill Hamid 1.225 Sean Johnson 1.242 Brad Guzan 1.271 Zack Steffen 1.338

And if we put these into an order of best to worst for Clean Sheets per Game:

Player: Clean Sheets per Game: Brad Guzan 0.326 Zack Steffen 0.308 Bill Hamid 0.295 Sean Johnson 0.273

A near reversal.

Enter Ethan Horvath, his full stats for Club Brugge:

Player: Appearances: Goals Allowed: Clean Sheets: Goals Against per Game: Clean Sheets per Game: Ethan Horvath 46 51 14 1.109 0.304

These stats would put Horvath at the top of the list for Goals Against per Game and right in the middle for Clean Sheets per game. Keeping in mind that this includes Champions League and Europa League, as well as Jupiler League Playoffs. His argument becomes even better when you take into account just this season’s stats (last season’s for MLS players) for all of our candidates:

Player: Appearances: Goals Allowed: Clean Sheets: Goals Against per Game: Clean Sheets per Game: Ethan Horvath 23 24 9 1.043 0.391 Bill Hamid 15 14 5 0.933 0.333 Sean Johnson 35 46 10 1.314 0.286 Brad Guzan 38 44 12 1.158 0.316 Zack Steffen 32 42 11 1.313 0.344

Only Hamid out performs him in GApG and he sweeps the competition away with CSpG. Meanwhile Horvath is doing all this in a European Top 10 league, in continental competitions (once again mentioning he recorded clean sheets against Dortmund, Monaco, and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League), and is the youngest player on the list.

Right now Gregg Berhalter’s squad includes Horvath, Johnson, and Steffen for the upcoming March friendlies. Based on what we looked at above I would argue that Horvath is a must have and should be starting friendlies so we can see some more of him at the international level. Behind him the numbers suggest that Hamid deserves a spot as the backup and Guzan or Steffen could be a toss-up on whether Berhalter wants to go with an experienced leader for the locker room, or another young keeper to groom and compete with the national team.

The USMNT has a couple young promising keepers and a couple solid more experienced keepers. Deciding who is in and out of the squad now is a good debate, but it seems clear that the future, possibly starting with the 2022 World Cup, could be in the hands of Ethan Horvath or Zack Steffen for the U.S.A.

All stats sourced from TransferMarkt.com