The Arsenal keeper Matt Turner has been a very busy man this summer, having played in 7 matches for the USMT in the Nations League and the Gold Cup. They won the Nations League beating Canada in the Final, but they have now finally been beaten on penalties by Panama in the Gold Cup semi-final.
Turner was the hero in the quarters when he saved two penalties in the shootout with Canada, but last night The USA missed twice and despite Turner stopping one from Panama they were finally beaten 4-3.
As captain, Turner was interviewed after the game, and he said: “We made some bad plays, we made some good plays, but at the end of the day, it came down to a penalty shootout and going through 120 minutes and penalties twice in four days is just emotional. It’s been a lot.”
The USMT squad was completely different to the stars that won the Nations Cup, except for Turner, and he wasn’t too upset at losing, as he added: “There’s a lot of guys here that have developed a lot throughout it and it’s only a good thing for the player pool to have experiences like this to instil hunger in the younger players, instil hunger in myself.
“It was great to get to play with some new faces and some younger guys. I got that childish ‘joy of playing’ back, which was really nice.”
The 7 matches with the USA came on top of the good run he had at the World Cup in December, so he has more than eclipsed the 6 games he was given with Arsenal in the whole of last season, but he must surely expected to be involved in a lot more in the coming season as Arsenal will have a lot of involvement in four competitions (or we hope they will!)
Have a good rest Matt, you have certainly earned it, and good luck for the new season…
Waiting For Declan!!! – Dublin Arsenal Supporters 22/23 ARSENAL MID-SUMMER REVIEW
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
My only concern is if Ramsdale gets injured, will Turner be able to step up, I feel we need a good second back up keeper, and Turner doesn’t inspire much confidence, I could be wrong
He certainly inspires confidence in America, and he was outstanding in the World Cup as well.
I think we got a bargain there..
Matt Turner did his best last night in my opinion, he just got caught by the law of average.