From Fairfield to MLS
Revolution’s Turner has become an elite goalkeeper
Matt Turner didn’t play club soccer in New Jersey until he was 16. He didn’t have a full-time goalkeeper trainer until Javier Decima two years later. Fairfield was the only Division I college that offered Turner a spot on its team.
He had played football, basketball and baseball. Baseball was his No. 1.
“I was late to soccer,” said Turner, whose dramatic penalty-kick save helped propel the New England Revolution into the MLS conference finals Sunday against Columbus. “I broke my mom’s heart when I chose soccer over baseball. I had been swinging a bat ever since I could walk.
“Part of the reason I fell in love with the game in 2010, I watched the U.S. in the World Cup. When they beat Algeria I’d never watched a Yankee game and screamed the way I did when Landon Donovan scored that goal. That’s the way it happened. I fell in love with the sport and became obsessed with being better at it.”
Evidently, Landon made him feel a way Derek Jeter couldn’t. And oh, Matt Turner did get better.
Philadelphia’s Andre Blake, the former UConn star from Jamaica who was taken No. 1 in the 2014 MLS Super Draft, recently was named the 2020 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. Turner finished second in the voting. Turner went undrafted.
From a .500 season, the Revs have a shot at their first MLS Cup title. Turner was named team MVP by both the Revs’ fans and players. There’s plenty of talk in soccer circles about Turner’s future with a top European league and the U.S. men’s national soccer team.
His ascent in the sport? “Slow to quick, in a way,” Turner, 26, said. “For me, I had no real expectations of what my career would be like. I felt like when I got into MLS, I already had defied the
odds and was playing with house money.”
Turner started his last two years at Fairfield and he had seven shutouts as a senior in 2015. Playing every minute of the Stags’ season, he was an All-MAAC second-team pick. As a junior, he led the nation in save percentage at 89 percent. He was Fairfield Male Athlete of the Year.
“I think I’ve grown a ton since I’ve left Fairfield, but I think I generally had a pretty great college career,” Turner said. “Fairfield is a smallermarket team in Division I soccer. People who followed along a little more closely would have seen me sooner, in my opinion. There have been some great goalkeepers at Fairfield over the years that were under the radar massively.
“They’ve had one of the best goalkeeper coaches I ever had (Decima, Stags associate coach) in terms of developing youth. He’s someone who looked at me when I was 17 and saw something that no other Division I school saw. I’m obviously so grateful. He’s a close friend and mentor to me.”
Turner was signed by New England after a free-agent preseason trial in March 2016. He also didn’t play in a Revolution game for two years, instead loaned to the Richmond Kickers of the USL.
“I never knew if I was ever going to get an appearance in MLS,” Turner said. “I was like if it doesn’t work out, they’ll pick up my option. That’ll be OK.”
Brad Friedel, replaced by Bruce Arena last year, gave Turner his first start March 3, 2018, in the Revolution’s season opener. Blake was in the other net. Philadelphia won 2-0 — still, Turner, presumed to be the Revs’ No. 3 keeper at the start of the preseason, was on his way.
“Once I started playing, I got addicted to improving myself,” Turner said. “That’s the kind of person I am. I always wanted to be the best at what I was doing. I know I’m not there yet. There’s still a lot of room of growth for me. And there are still better goalkeepers than me in the U.S.”
Turner has gotten two call-ups to the USMNT. He went to the November 2019 camp, but did not play against Canada or Cuba in the CONCACAF Nations League Group A wins. In January, he was named to the 25-man roster for the team’s camp, but it was Reggie Cannon who played in the 1-0 win over Costa Rica on Feb. 1. Turner was a healthy scratch. Still, he is drawing closer. The Olympics are in 2021. The World Cup in 2022.
“You look at the history of the U.S. developing goalkeepers and they’ve produced ones who have played at really high levels in club football,” Turner said. “Playing for the national team would be a dream come true. I look at (Europe) as a goal. It’s definitely a step up. If you want to be a regular playing for the national team, playing in qualifiers and in the World Cup, you’ve got to challenge yourself at the highest level possible. I would love to test myself at the highest level even if it didn’t mean I’d play for the national team.
“At the end of the day, the situation in New England is great. I have a goalkeeper coach who has taught me so much and a head coach who has loads of experience and is a proven winner. Playing week in and week out in New England has gotten me the opportunity to be with the national team already. Going over to Europe is also a little risky. A new environment, a new city and country, a new culture; you’ve got to get used to all that and settle in and try to win a job.”
Turner signed a new deal with the Revs in August 2019, which went into effect this season and reportedly pays him $200,000 per season plus bonuses and incentives. The final two years of the four-year deal reportedly are club options. Turner did secure a passport from Lithuania, a European Union member, and that makes it more advantageous for acquiring work permits.
In the meantime there is work to do Sunday. The Revs were up 2-1 in the 74th minute against Orlando City last weekend when Daryl Dike drew the penalty kick. Nani took it. He drilled a shot for the lower corner. Turner guessed correctly, dove right and made a splendid stop. The Revs would win 3-1.
“In those moments, I find I do a little better when I shut my mind off and sort of read the clues of body language,” Turner said. “You do your homework. You try to see some historical trends. You shut your mind off. I went the right way as hard as I could and made the save in an important moment for our team. That felt really nice.
“As a goalkeeper it’s really the only time when the ball goes into the back of the net and you sort of think to yourself, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s probably the least-pressure moment for the goalkeeper because you’re not expected to make the save. All the pressure is on the attacker. He’s expected to score. That mindset can be beneficial.”
Turner has an active mind, and learning to cool the synapses has its benefits. COVID 2020, he said, has actually given him some calm and perspective.
“In a way it’s been really good for me personally,” he said. “I have OCD basically about certain things on game day, little things. That has gone all out the window when it comes to this year. You’re playing with no fans, flying in the same day you’re playing, COVID tests — all these things if they happened in the past you’d be like, ‘Oh God, the odds are stacked against me. This is the worst day ever. There’s no way we’re going to win.’
“You can’t control everything. All you can control is what you can put out there for 90 minutes. What matters is the attitude and energy you bring into the game. Another part of my motivation for 2020 and beyond is how my sister reacted to her call to duty, to go above and beyond and her reaction to it. Knowing the game we play is a game. My sister and people like her have been dealing with life and death every day.”
Turner’s older sister Michelle was an operating room nurse at New York Presbyterian/Cornell during the first outbreak of COVID in New York City. They were running out of hospital beds, so the OR was turned into a 36-bed ICU unit for COVID patients. Michelle managed the floor.
“That was very a challenging time for her and for our family,” Turner said. “I know she was nervous before. She felt confident after. I don’t want to say traumatized, because I think she is doing OK, but at the end of the day it left some scars. Not only her but for all nurses that work on the front lines. There is a toll emotionally and physically. Yet if not for them it would be way more tragic. I’m so proud of her. To stare at the face of a deadly virus and it’s their call to duty — it just blows me away.”