A man walks to the goal after 120 minutes of exhilarating and exhausting football. D.C. United, reborn following the move to their new stadium and the signing of Wayne Rooney that past summer, had done the impossible and gone from the bottom of the Eastern Conference and made it to the Playoffs. But now they were faced with a penalty-shootout against the Columbus Crew. They battered their Ohio-based opponents for the majority of the game, but after taking the game into extra-time at 1-1 and then both teams scoring again to make it 2-2, penalties would ultimately decide who progressed to the next round. For D.C. United, the nerves kicked in, for Columbus Crew goalkeeper Zack Steffen, he knew the game was already won.

A keeper for the big event

Sure enough, Columbus won 3-2 on penalties, with Steffen saving two penalties, including one from Rooney. Though the Crew would be knocked out in the next round by the New York Red Bulls, the game raised Steffen’s stock a year after the 23-year-old Pennsylvania-born keeper introduced himself to the world in similar fashion, keeping a clean sheet in the Playoffs against Atlanta United, and then being the star man in the shootout. If 2017 was Steffen’s breakout year, 2018 was the year the world recognised his potential. The Crew star was voted MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and US Soccer’s Men’s Player of the Year following an international year that saw the shot-stopper assert himself as the new American #1. And in 2019, Steffen will be taking his trade to Manchester City where he will have the belief that he can challenge for Ederson’s starting spot.