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USMNT's Zack Steffen Defended by Manchester City's Pep Guardiola for Liverpool Error
April 17, 2022
Manchester City's backup goalkeeper, the USMNT's Zack Steffen, made a horrible error in Saturday's FA Cup semifinal against Liverpool, turning the ball over in front of his own goal and allowing Sadio Mane to score.
It proved to be a costly mistake, as City lost the match 3-2, but manager Pep Guardiola came to Steffen's defense.
"It was an accident, but we need him to try because that's how we play our football," he told reporters. "He deserves to play and after that he had a good game. He made good saves and is an exceptional keeper."
The reaction on social media wasn't so understanding:
Stephen Meyer @StephenMeyerRDCThe accepted "fact" that Steffen is somehow elite with his feet and that makes him a better keeper than Turner/Horvath for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USMNT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USMNT</a> is a joke. This was not an isolated error for him. He's regularly shaky & unnerving. <a href="https://t.co/YHzl1sT4dq">https://t.co/YHzl1sT4dq</a>
But Guardiola has Steffen's back.
"We use our keeper to move our opponents into different situations. I'm pretty sure Zack didn't want to do it," he said. "Sometimes the strikers miss in front of the keeper, other times the keeper makes a mistake."
It was, however, a pretty huge mistake.
