2018 NCAA Men's Goalkeeper Rankings

Available video attached to each goalkeeper. If known highlights of a goalkeeper are not linked, please head over to the contact page to submit them.

Seniors

1. Todd Morton (Delaware)
2. Rashid Nuhu (Fordham, Ghana)
3. Bobby Edwards (Mount St. Mary's)
4. Briley Guarneri (Colorado Mesa, D2)
5. Jimmy Hague (Michigan State)
6. Hendrik Hilpert (Syracuse, Germany)
7. Dylan Castanheira (Columbia)
8. Luis Barraza (Marquette)
9. Henry Stutz (Holy Cross)
10. Sawyer Jackman (UIC)

Bill says: We were all spoiled last year after we saw four goalkeepers selected in the first 21 picks of the 2018 MLS Draft so don’t expect a repeat as this class’ talent hails a little farther off the radar. While Morton and Edwards’ respective schools struggled to put together consistent performances, they have the size and mechanics MLS scouts are looking for. Nuhu should impress others with his feet, possessing the best distribution skills in the class. Barraza holds the possibility of a Real Salt Lake homegrown contract but spent the summer with in Chicago a few months ago. Guarneri notched 54 wins and 37 shutouts in his four-year career with Colorado Mesa, relying heavily on his Tim Melia-esque ability to track down a ball no matter the situation.

Juniors

1. Dayne St. Clair (Maryland, Canada) **
2. Jimmy Slayton (Hartford)
3. Parker Siegfried (Ohio State)
4. Jacob Harris (Colgate)
5. Wallis Lapsley (UC Davis)
6. Drake Callender (California)
7. Carlos Caro (Howard)
8. Sawyer Gaffney (Davidson)
9. Andreu Cases Mundet (Wake Forest, Spain)
10. Mertcan Akar (Old Dominion, Germany)

** - graduating early

Bill says: Most of the junior goalkeepers return from the preseason rankings although there are some newcomers. It looks like Canada’s top young goalkeeper won’t be returning next fall and with the CPL gearing up for their inaugural season, we could see him playing sooner than later. St. Clair (Red Bulls U23s) and Slayton (Ocean City) continued their success after spending the summer with prestigious PDL sides. While Siegfried holds a possible homegrown option with the Crew, the MLS side still doesn’t have a proper USL affiliate, which could complicate things down the line.

Sophomores

1. Chase Vosvick (Loyola Maryland)
2. Ben Hale (Furman)
3. Will Pulisic (Duke)
4. Trey Muse (Indiana)
5. Matt Freese (Harvard)
6. Carson Williams (Villanova)
7. Will Palmquist (Denver)
8. Colin Shutler (Virginia)
9. Noah Lawrence (Cincinnati)
10. Miha Miskovic (Northwestern, Serbia)

Bill says: Out of the four classes, the sophomores stand out with the most depth. Vosvick is in the running for top goalkeeper in all of college soccer. FC Dallas product Ben Hale has quietly done very well at Furman, maintaining a sub 1.0 goals allowed stat line through his first two years starting for the Paladins. Thomas has transitioned well from Watford’s academy system into three-time national champions’ set up. Despite splitting time with senior Nick Gardner, Will Palmquist won first-team honors within the Summit League.

Freshmen

1. Justin Garces (UCLA)
2. Andrew Thomas (Stanford, England)
3. George Tasouris (Grand Canyon, Cyprus)
4. Giannis Nikopolidis (Georgetown, Greece)
5. Adrian Fernandez (Oregon State, Spain)
6. George Marks (Clemson)
7. Christian Miesch (Stony Brook, Switzerland)
8. Quantrell Jones (UMBC)
9. Sam Ilin (LIU Brooklyn)
10. Ryan Curtis (Sacramento State)

Bill says: For those worried about international talent squeezing out the American player, don’t look at the freshmen class. Universities across the country have done an excellent job at identifying talented, young goalkeepers from all over Europe while the 1999’s and 2000’s were a little thin for the US. Garces, Jones, and Marks carry USYNT-filled resumes but all experienced their ups and down throughout the freshman season. Stanford (Matt Frank), Wake Forest (Dominic Peters), Ohio State (David Abonce), and UCLA (Cameron Douglas) possess talented freshmen who sat the bench but could resurface down the line, although with full rosters it may be a while until we hear from the MLS academy products again.

Past Collegiate Goalkeeper Rankings
2014: Final
2015: Preseason and Final
2016: Preseason and Final
2017: Preseason and Final
2018: Preseason

cover photo from bluehens.com

2018 NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge

If you're on your phone, click here to see the standings in a pdf.


The Deadline to play is
1:00 PM (ET) Thursday, November 15th.

Welcome back to Everybody Soccer's fifth annual NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge. Last year Top Drawer Soccer’s own JR Eskilson and Travis Clark finished first and third, respectively, showing off their dominance in collegiate soccer expertise.

2018 returns and all the scores are reset as we gear up for a new bracket challenge. Admission is free and the only prize is bragging rights. Student-athletes and the elderly are all welcome to play!

What Is the NCAA Tournament?

Every year NCAA soccer concludes their season with a 48 team tournament. 24 conference representatives are selected by either winning their respective conference or tournament. The remaining 24 spots are filled by teams earning at-large bids, regardless of conference affiliation. The first round features 32 teams facing off while the second round introduces the 16 seeded teams who were given a bye past the first round.

Click here to see the 2018 bracket
A printable version can be found
here

What Is the Bracket Challenge?

The bracket challenge is a free-to-enter competition with no prize to allow student-athletes to play. Simply make your predictions on each game in the national tournament then submit it before the first game kicks off, on Thursday afternoon. The winner will be determined by who scores the most points. You can score a maximum of 176 points total (32 each round, except the first which is only 16). The rounds are weighted as such:

Round 1 - 1 point (16 games)
Round 2 - 2 point (16 games)
Round 3 - 4 points (8 games)
Quarterfinals - 8 points (4 games)
Semifinals - 16 points (2 games)
Final - 32 points (1 game)

How to Play

There are a couple of different ways to submit a bracket.

1. Fancy, Interactive Google Doc - I have created a fancy interactive tool through Google Docs but unfortunately does not work on phones. (You can only use it on a desktop or laptop computer.) 

  • Click here to go to view the bracket template.

  • You will not be able to edit the spreadsheet unless you download the document. Underneath "2018 NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge Template" in the top left, click

    • File > Download As > Microsoft Excel (.xslx)

  • The spreadsheet will download to your computer. Fill out column D, the blue and green cells. The rest of the document will automatically update itself. The spreadsheet has formulas to double check accuracy and spelling, so make sure you end up with smiley faces in the purple column.

  • In the green column at the top, enter your name, state or country you represent, bracket name (can be anything serious or silly), and your twitter handle to appear on the scoreboard.

  • Email me the file at: everybodysoccer@yahoo.com or tweet me @letsallsoccer

  • If something goes terribly wrong or you mess up the document, just go back to the link to re-download the document and start over.

 

2. Edit a Blank Bracket and Send It Over - You can either download the bracket and edit it on your phone or computer. The bracket is fairly clean so writing on it may be easier for you, depending on your phone. You can email me the final product at everybodysoccer@yahoo.com or tweet a picture @letsallsoccer.

Click here to view the printable bracket

 

3. Draw It on a Napkin, Etc. - If you're having trouble downloading the bracket, you can always write down all your picks on a napkin, take a picture of it, and send it my way. It doesn't matter if you write it in crayon or spell it out with macaroni art, as long as I can read each pick, you're in!

 

 

Send in brackets to:
everybodysoccer@yahoo.com
or
@letsallsoccer

Deadline Is 1:00 PM (ET)
Thursday, November 15th.


 

Resources

RPIs and Schedules - Dan Gaucho has a great site for all your RPI and scheduling needs.

Media CoverageTop Drawer Soccer has multiple articles on the tournament, rankings, and players to watch for.

History - Take a look at each school's history with the tournament. Teams were given points for how many rounds they went (Round Pts) and if they held a seed (Seed Pts).  "+/-" is gauging if they overperform or underperform in the tournament given their seed history.

Lastly, here are a few stats on how far average seeds advance in the tournament. Second seeds are the most successful while 14 seeds (who start in the second round) only advance half the time.

Performance by Seed
avg number of rounds completed, 1 to 7

1 - 4.2
2 - 5.7
3 - 4.3
4 - 3.4
5 - 3.8
6 - 3.3
7 - 3.3
8 - 3.9
9 - 3.5
10 - 3.0
11 - 3.1
12 - 3.1
13 - 2.9
14 - 2.5
15 - 2.6
16 - 3.1
unseeded - 1.7

cover photo belongs to Tony Quinn

Three Underrated Premier League Goalkeepers

cover photo from Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

It’s fairly well known by this point that English Premier League is filled with great goalkeepers, including the likes of de Gea, Ederson, Alisson, Cech, Kepa, and Pickford. However there are only so many headlines to go around, meaning a number of goalkeepers are left out in the cold when it comes to coverage. Some don’t deserve much more attention but here are three who are not only proving why the EPL is the best goalkeeping league in the world but why they deserve a little more face time.



Rui Patricio

stoke-city-v-wolverhampton-wanderers-pre-season-friendly-5b6d77f74e17c8010f000001.jpg

Photo from 90min.com


Patricio would likely be getting a little more press if it weren’t for Alisson and Kepa’s transfer fees that dwarfed the news of Patricio’s arrival with Wolverton. Surprisingly enough, the lack of coverage isn’t from an uncompelling storyline. For starters, Patricio had a strong World Cup run this summer, reaching the round of 16 before being knocked out by Uruguay. It was a nice change of pace for Patricio, who at the time had recently requested his contract to be terminated with Portuguese club side Sporting CP in the midst of a truly bizarre set of altercations, included fans attacking Sporting players and staff.

Early into the season, the Portuguese international has successfully led Wolves to the top half of the table. Through eight starts, seven matches have been determined by one goal or less, yet Wolves have picked up at least a point in each of those seven. Saves on long-range strikes against Raheem Sterling and free kick denials on Fred are exactly why recently promoted Wolverton will avoid an expected relegation battle.



Alex McCarthy

It’s not an easy life being the goalkeeper for one of the worst defenses in the league but McCarthy is doing what he can for a club that was one of the front runners to see relegation at the start of the season. McCarthy possesses a lightness and mobility not found in most Premier League goalkeepers, which pairs well with his scrappy approach to the position. Unfortunately, it hasn’t mattered too much as Southampton are conceding multiple 1v1s and shots within the 18 every weekend. Despite a recent strong performance against Wolves, it was another familiar defeat for Southampton.

McCarthy could admittedly use some work on his 1v1 situations as his current approach hasn’t yielded much success this season. So far he’s managed to hold off Angus Gunn, the Manchester City product who arrived at Southampton on a £10 million transfer fee, but after conceding eight goals in the last three games, McCarthy might have to remind the manager why he deserves the number one spot.



Lukasz Fabianski

image.jpg

Photo from Newham Recorder


A 33-year-old goalkeeper is never a sexy pick but the Polish international - who is still playing for his country as of last weekend - has rebounded from four straight losses with strong performances against Everton, Chelsea, and Manchester United. He’s allowed three goals in the last four Premier League games, including a shutout with some key saves against Chelsea.

Fabianski is a no-nonsense goalkeeper who is willing to fight in the trenches to make a save. Perhaps he’s not the most agile goalkeeper but he more than makes up for it with his determination to keep the ball out of the net. It’s unclear how many years Fabianski has left in him but as of right now, he’s keeping stride with the best the league has to offer.

The World's Top Goalkeepers (2018)

Top 50

The top 50 is based on current form, for both club and country.

1. Marc ter Stegen, Germany (Barcelona) - 26
2. Keylor Navas, Costa Rica (Real Madrid) - 31
3. Jan Oblak, Slovenia (Atlético Madrid) - 25
4. David de Gea, Spain (Manchester United) - 27
5. Thibaut Courtois, Belgium (Real Madrid) - 26
6. Jasper Cillessen, Netherlands (Barcelona) - 29
7. Gianluigi Buffon, Italy (PSG) - 40
8. Ederson, Brazil (Manchester City) - 25
9. Rui Patrício, Portugal (Wolverhampton) - 30
10. Manuel Neuer, Germany (Bayern Munich) - 32

One to watch: There are a number of great storylines within the top ten. How will de Gea respond to his lackluster World Cup performances? Will Barcelona be able to make Cillessen happy? How will Real Madrid handle both Navas and Courtois? But one goalkeeper that has flown under the radar is Wolves’ Patrício. The gauge of his success for the club will strictly be tried to Wolverhampton’s ability to stay afloat. Coming off an impressive World Cup run, Patrício has the “big save” in his repertoire, as he showed against Morocco and his new club will be expecting more of the same. Wolves currently sit ninth in the table but if their zero goal differential holds up, Patrício will surely be called into action a number of times before the end of the spring.


11. Yann Sommer, Switzerland (Borussia Mönchengladbach) - 29
12. Alisson, Brazil (Liverpool) - 25
13. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Spain (Chelsea) - 23
14. Fernando Pacheco, Spain (Alavés) - 26
15. Salvatore Sirigu, Italy (Torino) - 31
16. Roman Bürki, Switzerland (Borussia Dortmund) - 27
17. Pau López, Spain (Betis) - 23
18. Petr Cech, Czech Republic (Arsenal) - 36
19. Ron-Robert Zieler, Germany (VfB Stuttgart) - 29
20. Sven Ulreich, Germany (Bayern Munich) - 29

One to watch: Arsenal specifically brought in Leno to replace Cech and while the veteran goalkeeper has held off Leno so far, at some point the switch is going to be made. Fans and pundits have been critical of Cech’s questionable passing ability, with plenty of validity to their complaints. Cech is in the final year of his contract but Unai Emery hasn’t given us a clear path moving forward. He’s no stranger to pressure but Cech is playing for his starting spot every week and will likely be hearing about it his backup for the rest of the season. It’s a tough place to be for a goalkeeper who’s trying to squeeze the last bit of top-level goalkeeping out of his career.

21. Bernd Leno, Germany (Arsenal) - 26
22. Etrit Berisha, Albania (Atalanta) - 29
23. Lukasz Fabianski, Poland (West Ham United) - 33
24. Hugo Lloris, France (Tottenham Hotspur) - 31
25. Samir Handanovic, Slovenia (Inter) - 34
26. Lukas Hradecky, Finland (Bayer Leverkusen) - 28
27. Thomas Strakosha, Albania (Lazio) - 23
28. Igor Akinfeev, Russia (CSKA Moscow) - 32
29. Kasper Schmeichel, Denmark (Leicester City) - 31
30. Marwin Hitz, Switzerland (Dortmund) - 31

One to watch: Albania isn’t typically known for their elite goalkeeping but Berisha and Strakosha have done well to put their homeland on the map for Serie A fans. After seeing a new level of transfer fees for goalkeepers this summer, Strakosha is surely one of the next few to have his name tied to an eight-figure transfer fee. The twenty-three-year-old is everything coaches want in a goalkeeper. His impressive frame and ability to cover the goalmouth will catch anyone’s eye but his mobility is unique for goalkeepers of his stature. Whether it’s going post-to-post, getting up or down, or closing space on a 1v1, Strakosha has the wheels to cover the ground.

31. Martin Dubravka, Slovakia (Newcastle United) - 29
32. Fernando Muslera, Uruguay (Galatasaray) - 32
33. David Ospina, Colombia (Napoli) - 30
34. Adrián, Spain (West Ham United) - 31
35. Anthony Lopes, Portugal (Lyon) - 27
36. Alphonse Areola, France (PSG) - 25
37. Jiri Pavlenka, Czech Republic (Werder Bremen) - 26
38. Ralf Fährmann, Germany (FC Schalke 04) - 29
39. Bono, Morocco (Girona) - 27
40. Marco Sportiello, Italy (Frosinone) - 26

One to watch: Alphonse Areola is best known for his reaction saves, which there are many, but as Areola encountered recently against Liverpool, top-level goalkeeping requires another layer of perfection. Whether it’s utilizing efficient lateral movement or handling a cleat to the midsection, Areola has his work cut out for him to keep Buffon on the bench. If Areola can find more consistency in uncomfortable situations, he may not only tie down his starting spot with PSG but also with the French national team.

41. Kevin Trapp, Germany (Eintracht Frankfurt) - 27
42. Asmir Begovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bournemouth) - 31
43. Wojciech Szczesny, Poland (Juventus) - 28
44. Orestis Karnezis, Greece (Napoli) - 33
45. Mattia Perin, Italy (Juventus) - 25
46. Jordan Pickford, England (Everton) - 24
47. Antonio Adán, Spain (Atletico Madrid) - 31
48. Fabri, Spain (Fulham) - 30
49. Pepe Reina, Spain (AC Milan) - 36
50. Tomas Vaclik, Czech Republic (Sevilla FC) - 29

One to watch: Similar to Petr Cech, Wojciech Szczesny has a younger goalkeeper quietly waiting in the wings behind him. Perin is a bit wild in goal but Szczesny isn’t exactly known for steadiness either, struggling to handle 1v1s in past seasons. It’ll be a tightly contested goalkeeping battle that could see multiple changes throughout the course of the season. Szczesny will need to keep errors to a minimum and have a positive Champions League run to in order to keep his starting spot.

Top 20 Under 24

The top 20 under 24 is based off a prediction of who will be the top goalkeepers by the time of the 2022 World Cup for goalkeepers currently under 24 years of age.

1. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Spain (Chelsea) - 23
2. Pau López, Spain (Betis) - 23
3. Thomas Strakosha, Albania (Lazio) - 23
4. Alban Lafont, France (Fiorentina) - 19
5. Gianluigi Donnarumma, Italy (AC Milan) - 19
6. Fabian Bredlow, Germany (1. FC Nürnberg) - 23
7. Mike Maignan, France (Lille) - 23
8. André Onana, Cameroon (Ajax) - 22
9. Simone Scuffet, Italy (Udinese) - 22
10. Emil Audero, Italy (Sampdoria) - 21

One to watch: It’s not often a twenty-three-year-old simply hops into the starting spot of a Champions League team but that’s the level Kepa brings to the table. Similar to de Gea’s arrival with Manchester United, Kepa is surely going to be reamed for his lack of aerial prowess. He’s already looked a little shaken on a couple of balls into the six-yard box a few weeks into the season. There’s a lot of pressure for Kepa to prove his worth after what Chelsea went through to bring him in, with something as little as Kepa’s fluency in English likely to become a talking point in magazines. Kepa may have some glaring errors this year but de Gea has displayed a good blueprint on how to adjust to tough crosses. If Kepa can impress fans in other parts of the game, they may be more forgiving in his first season. If not, Chelsea could be looking for a quick fix to fix the situation.

11. Dominik Livakovic, Croatia (Dinamo Zagreb) - 23
12. Marvin Schwäbe, Germany (Brondby IF) - 23
13. Boris Radunović, Serbia (Cremonese) - 22
14. Mouez Hassen, Tunisia (Nice) - 23
15. Runar Alex Runarsson, Iceland (Dijon) - 23
16. Rubén Blanco, Spain (Celta) - 23
17. Alex Meret, Italy (Napoli) - 21
18. Denis Shcherbitski, Belarus (BATE Borisov) - 22
19. Adrian Semper, Croatia (Chievo Verona) - 20
20. Mile Svilar, Belgium (Benfica) - 19

One to watch: Some may have missed Hassen’s World Cup performance as the Tunisian goalkeeper injured his shoulder just eleven minutes into the first match, prematurely ending his tournament run. Despite the shortened performance, Hassen managed to make two goal-denying saves and would have surely had the save of the tournament had a rebound not found its way back in goal. For American readers, Hassen has a number of similarities to Nick Rimando. Both undersized, they implement a scrambling style to get from point A to point B. A little erratic, both live and die by their mobility and have the ability to produce jaw-dropping saves.

Cover photo belongs to Omni Sport