If this was the season where Ethan Horvath saw himself supplanting Matt Turner as the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper, his form has not done him any favours.
After losing the first game of the campaign to Sunderland last weekend, Horvath had the chance to help Cardiff City register their first win of the league season on Saturday against Burnley, who were relegated to the Championship when they finished 19th in last season’s Premier League.
However, Horvath made a disastrous error in the ninth minute of the game, allowing a backpass to slip under his foot and into the goal. It put Burnley 1-0 up and set them on their way to a 5-0 win.
Here, The Athletic breaks down the own goal, Horvath’s position in the USMNT depth chart and the goalkeeping situation that incoming head coach Mauricio Pochettino is set to inherit.
The error
Away to Burnley at Turf Moor, one of the most difficult grounds to visit in the Championship this season, the Cardiff City players will have been under strict instructions from head coach Erol Bulut to keep their concentration, particularly in the opening 20 minutes.
Burnley, part-owned by NFL legend JJ Watt, are among the favourites to be promoted back to England’s top flight this year — and they started their quest with a 4-1 win over Luton Town on Monday.
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Burnley were expected to put the pressure on Cardiff’s goal from the start. Still, they would not have believed their luck when Horvath, 29, gifted them an opening goal after nine minutes.
With Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez pressuring Cardiff centre-back Dimitrios Goutas on the edge of the box, the defender played a pass back to Horvath, who was positioned around six yards away from his goal.
Goutas did have the option of a pass forward available, but the decision to play ‘safe’ back to Horvath would, in theory, allow the team to reset with the goalkeeper having to decide between kicking the ball long to push his team-mates closer to Burnley’s half or begin building up from defence to break through the opposition press.
If Horvath wanted to play a pass towards the right, he might have angled his body towards Calum Chambers, who was positioned near the 18-yard box to the right of the goalkeeper, but Horvath approached the pass with a forward-facing body, suggesting he had not decided what to do. Perhaps that slight indecision caused him to take his eye off the ball, allowing Goutas’ pass to slip under his foot and roll towards the goal.
Horvath’s attempts to scamper back were in vain as the ball had already crossed the line before he could make contact with it.
For Cardiff, it was a disastrous start to a match against one of the league’s best teams. For Horvath, it was a massive blow after conceding twice against Sunderland last Saturday.
The rest of Horvath’s performance
Horvath, who has won 10 caps for the USMNT since making his debut in 2016, conceded five goals at Turf Moor from an expected goals (xG) tally of 0.81. In other words, Burnley scored five times despite failing to create the quality of chances to, according to the xG model, score even once. The xG metric does not account for the quality of shots a goalkeeper faces but an overperformance of this degree is uncommon, and Horvath looked shaky all afternoon.
In the 31st minute, Luca Koleosho, eligible to play for the USMNT and Canada but an Italy Under-21s international, put Burnley two ahead with a left-footed volley around eight yards from goal. Horvath got a strong hand to the shot, which was not hit particularly hard, but he could not keep the ball out.
The goalkeeper then found himself out of position for Burnley’s third goal, but that was primarily down to the home team breaking down Cardiff’s defensive shape with a swift counter-attack, allowing Josh Brownhill to run beyond the defence into a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper.
There was little Horvath could do about Zeki Amdouni’s long-distance thunderbolt in the 88th minute and the finish from Johan Berg Gudmundsson in stoppage time to make it 5-0 was excellent. Still, he should assume a significant portion of the blame for at least two of Burnley’s five goals.
Over the summer, Horvath was named in the USMNT squad for Copa America and played 45 minutes in the second group game against Panama, conceding in the 83rd minute of a 2-1 defeat.
Horvath playing for USMNT at Copa America (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
As Matt Turner, who has worn the No 1 shirt consistently in recent years, has fallen out of favour at Nottingham Forest, this season was Horvath’s chance to overtake the New Jersey-born stopper under Pochettino and establish himself as the starter. However, his performances suggest Pochettino might be better served looking deeper in the pool.
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USMNT goalkeeper situation
As mentioned, Horvath is not the only USMNT goalkeeper who is struggling.
Turner, who was first choice at Copa America and the 2022 World Cup under previous head coach Gregg Berhalter, lost his place at Forest in the Premier League last season and there is no indication he is set to win it back.
After struggling in the first half of the campaign with Turner between the sticks, Forest recruited Belgium international goalkeeper Matz Sels from French side Strasbourg in January, and he became the undisputed starter under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Turner, 30, was left out of Espirito Santo’s squad entirely for Forest’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday, with Carlos Miguel, signed from Corinthians in July, picked as Sels’ backup. A move away from the City Ground before the Premier League’s transfer window shuts on August 30 appears the only way Turner will find consistent minutes this season.
Turner at Copa America (Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Lower down England’s football pyramid, Gabriel Slonina has made an impression at Barnsley in League One since signing on loan from Chelsea. Slonina, 20, made his USMNT debut in 2023 while on loan at Eupen in Belgium’s top division and has started first-team life in England well.
Slonina made his Barnsley debut in the Carabao Cup last Wednesday and saved two spot kicks as they progressed past Wigan Athletic into the tournament’s second round on penalties. He made his first league start on Saturday, impressing in a 2-1 away win over Lincoln City. Slonina faced 15 shots and made seven saves, allowing only one goal from an xG of 1.52.
Despite Slonina’s talent, it would not be a good look if the United States, a nation that has consistently developed Premier League-quality goalkeepers over more than two decades, had to venture as far down as League One (the third tier) for their starting goalkeeper.
As well as the three British-based goalkeepers at Pochettino’s disposal, there is Sean Johnson (Toronto), Drake Callender (Inter Miami) and Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew), among others, who are plying their trade in MLS. Schulte started for the U.S. at this summer’s Olympics.
Could Pochettino be tempted to elevate a U.S.-based goalkeeper up the depth chart to compete with Turner for the starting spot? At this stage, it’s a solution that appears in play.
