Zack Steffen was the USMNT’s number one starting keeper for the better part of two years. A massive move to Manchester City and praise from Josep Guardiola only added to that stamp of approval of the number 1 spot.
Unfortunately for Steffen’s all of that has changed as he was not one of the three goalkeepers going to the World Cup in Qatar. Over the last two years, Steffen has had a fall from grace. First being loaned out of Manchester City where in the limited matches he did play, Steffen was prone to huge blunders.
Then on the USMNT it was his understudies that provided the heroics, first Ethan Horvath came up big saving a penalty in the Nations League final against Mexico. Then Arsenal’s Matt Turner took the starting spot from Steffen on the back of solid play for both club and country.
Why is Zack Steffen missing the Qatar 2022 World Cup?
Gregg Berhalter stated one of the reasons why Steffen did not go to the tournament as being, “the hierarchy” of the USMNT goalkeepers going to the World Cup and wanting “more out of Zack” going forward.
Many pundits have stated that Steffen may not have gone to the tournament given he might not have been happy with being a number 2 option and that Berhalter considered team harmony over taking “the best” at his disposal.
This is not the first time something similar has happened on the USMNT, in 1994 Kasey Keller, who was playing very well at Millwall, was left off of the 94 World Cup squad given his difficult relationship with coach Bora Milutinović and that US Soccer’s pre World Cup marketing centered around Tony Meola, it would have been deemed “odd” for the face of US Soccer to sit on the bench in favor of the more talented Keller.
