HARTFORD, Conn. — It was playing out like a routine weekday afternoon college soccer match. Fairfield coach Carl Rees decided at halftime it was the right moment to give his athletic, but raw sophomore a chance to play in goal.
And then it all went wrong. In the 72nd minute of the game, Iona’s Jordan Scarlett’s shot from 30 feet hit the crossbar and went straight up into the air. All the young goalkeeper had to do was catch it on the way down, but he jumped up and missed the ball, which bounced off his hands and chest and trickled into the net.
For a moment, Matt Turner was flat on the ground, covering his face as if in anguish.
“That started his journey,” Rees says. “He recovered from that, he finished out the game, was convincing, then had to cope with the social media backlash, which is tough for a kid his age, or anybody.”
The video went viral, and eventually topped ESPN SportsCenter’s Not Top 10, its list of bloopers. Turner didn’t begin playing soccer until he was 16, a high school junior in New Jersey. Now he was a Division I keeper, famous for the wrong reasons.
That is no longer the case. Yes, it is that Matt Turner who has been in goal for Team USA at the World Cup. That Matt Turner has allowed one goal in three games, and posted the shutout in the 1-0 victory over Iran on Tuesday. He will be under the microscope Saturday when the Americans play the Netherlands, considered heavy favorites, in the Round of 16 — the knockout round, win or come home from Qatar to try again in four years.
And that Matt Turner, Fairfield U’s Matt Turner, “is crushing it,” Rees says.
“What people are getting to know about Matt Turner is, he is a mental giant, he really is,” Rees says. “Maybe that [play] was part of it. Or his focus on whatever realistic optimism, ‘I have these tools, I know I can do it.’ And he just went about getting to the absolute pinnacle of the game. ... It’s nuts.”
It is, indeed, a heck of a story, even without the fluke goal caught on video on Oct. 16, 2013 as its starting point. As Rees tells it, Turner would watch games on TV in Park Ridge, N.J., then go to the park and try to emulate what he saw, and he fell in love with the game. He became the starter at St. Joseph’s Regional as a junior when the keeper playing ahead of him got hurt.
Rees had recruited him on potential, and he came to Fairfield as a walk-on. Turner, 6 feet 3, was tall and athletic, but needed to improve on his footwork. He was diligent in honing his skills, which is probably why the “own” goal in his first chance to play meaningful minutes in college was so crushing in the moment.
“It’s the nature of the position, isn’t it?” Rees says. “A striker misses a chance, it’s not the end of the world. A goalkeeper makes a blunder and he takes it on the chin. We put an arm around him and told him it doesn’t define him, it doesn’t define his performance, and asked him how he felt going forward. It got so much press, but it happens.”
Turner took over as the Stags’ keeper early in the next season, posting 13 shutouts in 19 games as Fairfield led the nation in shutout percentage. As a senior in 2015, Turner played every minute in goal and had an 0.98 goals-against average along with carrying a 4.0 GPA.
Then Rees, Fairfield’s coach since 1996, did something he had never done, nor has he done since. He called an old friend, Mike Burns, GM of Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution and recommended one of his players. Turner made the Revs as a third-string keeper, and eventually moved up by then-coach Brad Friedel to No. 1. In 2021, Turner helped lead the Revs to the best single-season points total a club has achieved in MLS history, and the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs. (New England would lose to New York City FC in the semifinals). In February 2022, Turner joined Arsenal FC of the English Premier League.
“He took an unconventional way to get to the national team,” says Omid Namazi, assistant coach and director of scouting for the Hartford Athletic. “Usually players come through at age 14 or 15 and they’re identified by scouts. It’s not out of the realm for keepers to be identified late, because of the growth, the height. Even so, even at 18 or 20, he was not in the frame with the U.S. national teams. Matt took the opportunity by the throat and he ran with it.”
Turner, 28, joined the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2021, and has played 20 games with 14 shutouts, including five clean sheets in six games at the Gold Cup, which the U.S. won, and he was named the top goalkeeper. Now, the USMNT, which has played stellar defense in front of Turner, has posted multiple shutouts in a World Cup for the first time since 1930.
“His reactions are world class,” Namazi says, “The speed of his reactions, his shot blocking. and he’s very composed when he’s got the ball at his feet. His distribution is good. The goal we scored against Iran, it all started with his distribution. He brings a lot of great qualities to that position. When you’ve got a keeper who can block shots and also be an extra player back there for you, and be able to play with his feet, that’s a luxury to have.”
Turner returned to Fairfield for a game played in his honor last season. He and Rees have been exchanging texts from their opposite sides of the planet before and after every game.
“A lot of emotions,” Rees says. “I’m proud of how far he’s come. I’m not surprised he’s reached this level with his potential and mentality. And now I’m nervous for him, because now the spotlight is really on. The visibility he had brought to our program and the university as a whole, and to his hometown, and as a beacon for any kid who is coming up through the ranks, who takes a hit early on and goes on. ... For me, it tops the ‘Rudy’ story, you know what I mean?”
