Matt Turner is one of the best American goalkeepers and that’s a fact you can no longer deny. On Monday the United States Men’s National Team tapped Turner to be one of their goalkeepers for their annual January Camp.
Turner is one of 25-players selected and is one of four keepers tapped by Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. This is the 25-year-old’s second career call-up to the National Team after he participated in pre-camp and Concacaf Nations League Group A matches in November of 2019.
Turner will travel to Doha, Qatar where he will train in closed-door scrimmages from January 5th through the 25th. At that point the team will fly to Los Angeles to face Costa Rica on February 1st.
Back in November Turner was not able to acquire his first international cap as he was relegated to the bench. In MLS action the Fairfield University standout has a 16-14-16 record with 170 saves and 10 shutouts after signing as an undrafted free agent in 2016. Last season is where Turner defined himself as a franchise keeper posting an 8-4-7 record with 87 saves and five shutouts en-route to n Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoff appearance against Atlanta United.
That season was so successful for Turner that Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena signed him to a multi-year contract extension just months into his tenure. The rest of MLS took notice as well with Turner finishing fifth in the Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year voting. In reality he should have come in a tad higher than that. Turner ranked fourth in save percentage, fifth in winning percentage, and second in saves per 90 minutes.
The other goalkeepers on the USMNT roster are Sean Johnson, Bill Hamid, and JT Marcinkowski.
The one downside of Turner being with USMNT is the Revolution will be without their number one goalkeeper for a good portion of preseason training. New England is scheduled to train at their new training center starting on January 18th and running through February 5th. Funny enough Turner may be able to stay in L.A. with the Revs slated to travel to Southern California on February 6th.
