It has been a wild ride for New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner. He started his journey by being featured on Sports Center’s Not Top 10 for a blunder at Fairfield.
It’s safe to say the USMNT goalkeeper has made a fair bit of progress in his time with the Revs. Coming out of virtually nowhere, Turner immediately put up some of the most impressive statistics the league has seen and proved to be one of the best shot-stoppers as well.
After being snubbed for last year’s Goalkeeper of the Year award, he gets his revenge by winning it in 2021. Ironically, Turner completely outshined Philadelphia’s Andre Blake stats-wise in 2020, while Blake did the same this season, although to a lesser extent.
It seems that Blake and Turner’s award-winning years should have been flipped, but it works out for both. Matt Turner has about 8.8 goals above replacement on the season, similar to baseball’s WAR stat. This means that Turner has singlehandedly saved eight goals more than expected over the course of the year. For comparison, Nashville SC’s Joe Willis, who was also a candidate, had a -0.15 in the same stat, meaning he did not even save every shot he was expected to.
Despite some controversy for the award, it was a well-deserved one for Turner. Looking even past the domestic league level, Turner has seized one of the first two goalkeeper spots on the United States national team. In addition, he starred in the MLS All-Star Game, winning MVP for the game, in which he helped win in penalty kicks. He will now turn his attention to the incoming Eastern Conference Semi-Final against New York City FC next Tuesday.