When Alex Horwath signed with Real Salt Lake, we had every reason to think that we had on our team a true backup to Nick Rimando — someone who could challenge him, at times.

But as things have so often gone for Real Salt Lake’s backup goalkeepers, Horwath suffered an unexpected achilles injury and was out for the entire season.

It’s an odd thing, really, because we have nothing to judge Horwath on, and really, we ended up in a pretty good spot over the course of the year from a goalkeeping perspective. Through the course of injuries, we discovered that Andrew Putna was a capable first-team option, if just as third string. It’s certainly not the ideal way to find any of this out, but knowing is always better than not knowing.

Related Horwath undergoes surgery and what that means for Real Salt Lake

What can we expect in 2019 from Horwath? I actually wouldn’t be shocked if he continued at Real Salt Lake, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he left.

For me, he’s a massive unknown. At 31, he still has a chance to win a starting spot in MLS. Goalkeeper careers and trajectories are just so hard to figure out.