It’s been some 13 months since Zack Steffen took the field for the US men’s national team, and an eventful 13 months at that.
The Manchester City goalkeeper made the most of a year-long loan stint in the Bundesliga with Fortuna Dusseldorf, working through a nagging knee problem and eventually earning enough trust from Pep Guardiola to become City’s first-team No. 2 behind Ederson at the start of the current campaign. He’s earned a couple of starts in EFL Cup action thus far and is eagerly soaking up knowledge in his world-class surroundings at the English giants.
“The talent they have at that club, just to be in training with those guys every day, it's making me better,” Steffen told reporters in a Tuesday conference call, extolling the benefits he’s gained from working under Cityzens goalkeeping coaches Xabier Mancisidor and Richard Wright.
“It's just pushing me in ways that I definitely wasn't pushed in the past at different levels in my career," he said. "I mean, it's one of the best clubs in the world. I'm really enjoying getting to learn new things … in every aspect, it's quicker, it's faster, it's more intense, it's sharper. You’ve really got to be focused and dialed in and on your game every day, every training.”
Now, with a pivotal 2021 looming for the USMNT, Gregg Berhalter’s preferred ‘keeper must show that he can perform at a high level for his country despite seeing only spot duty for his club.
“I feel myself growing,” said the former Columbus Crew SC man. “Obviously games, getting games week in and week out, is most important. That's what we want. It's what I want. And right now I’m trusting the process, I'm getting these games in with the EFL Cup and I'm just trying to learn from the guys in training, from my staff. And then hopefully coming into these camps and getting games here, the rest will work itself out.”
Steffen hopes to play in both of this month’s friendlies, vs. Wales and Panama, though Berhalter has nearly as many options in goal as he does across the rest of an increasingly deep player pool.
Ethan Horvath is also in this camp, fresh off a star turn for Club Brugge in UEFA Champions League action last month, as is 18-year-old Vancouver Whitecaps academy product Chituru Odunze, a highly-regarded prospect currently at Premier League side Leicester City. Back home in MLS, ‘keepers like Brad Guzan, Matt Turner and Sean Johnson have also kept themselves in contention for call-ups.
“The US goalkeeping pool, I think we have a lot of strong goalkeepers,” said Steffen. “Each camp, every time we're in training, we push each other, we have a very positive relationship. It's fun, it's intense. It's how it should be.”
Though the current European-based squad will have relatively limited time together due to travel and COVID-19 mitigation limitations, Steffen likes what he’s seen so far from “a really good group of young guys” and believes Berhalter’s project can nonetheless make progress during this window.
“It's tough in such a short amount of time to get so many new faces together on the same page, but I think we’ve just got to show what our beliefs are,” he said. “We want to show what kind of team we want to be. And that's just going out there and working hard, working for each other, supporting one another and just going out there and taking it to other teams. So yeah, that's really our goal, is to go out there and play our way, play our soccer.”
