I’m excited to kick off a four-part series where we look back into the history of American goalkeeping. Where did it start? What did it look like? And how did it change over the years?
Historian Steve Holroyd - who has been a crucial cornerstone for my understanding of the history of the sport - helps me piece together all these questions as we dive into the pre-NASL era, which comprises of the “golden age” of the first American Soccer League (from 1921 to 1931) and the semi-pro era, which goes right up until 1967, at the start of the NASL.
In a time before the existence of goalkeeper coaches, goalkeeper camps, Instagram, or TikTok influences, you just have a person trying to figure out how to play a position all on their own. So with Steve, we talk about how teams attacked in this era, what was unique to the time, and what other outside factors influenced a goalkeeper’s style of play.
Although I’d be remised to overlook Jimmy Douglas’s 1930 World Cup run, Frank Borghi’s 1950 World Cup shutout against England, and, of course, other Hall of Fame goalkeepers such as Peter Renzulli, George Title, Stanley Chesney, and Gene Olaff. We don’t get into the micro-side of things with these players careers and, instead, discuss the macro-side of what was happening on the field stylistically speaking. So enjoy the first of a four-part series on the history of American goalkeeping.