Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen turns over new mental leaf

Forget the overthinking. Forget Copa América. Forget the noise.

In a penalty shootout against Club León, Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen blocked everything out.

The two-save effort that followed last Monday capped a seven-save night for the 29-year-old in a match where he was easily the best player on the pitch. The next game, he outdid that performance with eight saves against FC Juárez in Friday’s win in the Leagues Cup round of 32.

Perhaps his best save against Juárez came on a breakaway in the 74th minute to keep the game at its final score, 3-2. Forward Diego Valoyes received a pass in behind Rapids defender Keegan Rosenberry and was one-on-one with Steffen, who made himself big and reacted to what was in front of him.

A big right paw kept the Rapids ahead. And all he did was play.

“It’s awesome, man,” said Steffen, who will be in goal again Tuesday night when Deportivo Toluca visits Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with a spot in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals on the line.

“It feels like I’m getting back into my groove again, so it’s awesome. Now I’m just focused on continuing that, being consistent on Tuesday and just doing the job when I’m called upon, not overthinking and just playing.”

In previous games this season, Steffen would have thought long and hard about a number of things like footwork and positioning. Somewhere in the back of his head, the expectations, perceptions and self-doubt lingered.

With a jumbled mess in his head, the actual play in front of him suffered. Not anymore.

For Steffen, there wasn’t a pinpoint moment when the switch flipped from overthinker to shot-stopping game-saver. But there were discussions with his goalkeepers coach, Chris Sharpe, after being left off of the Copa América roster in June, which set the mental decluttering process in motion.

“Not being called up to Copa definitely took a chink out of my armor; it was playing on my mind all summer and I was trying to do too much during games,” Steffen said. “Now I’m just focusing on playing, not trying to be in the perfect position or thinking of all the different scenarios that could happen for any play. I’m just reacting and trusting my instincts from training.”

All season, Sharpe has seen the progression between the ears of a goalkeeper who dealt with the expectations attached to playing backup to Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson for three years. In 2022, he finally got consistent minutes on loan at Middlesbrough but then missed almost eight months with a knee injury before moving to the Rapids. He became a father in 2023 and had to move his entire family across the pond to join a new team.

“When you’re not in consistent football all the time, you start to think about tweaking things, especially when we’re trying to implement new things into his game, work on his strengths and weaknesses,” Sharpe said. “There’s a moment there where you start to overthink things and that’s natural for any player. The new environment, new style of play, new teammates and new surroundings for his family — there’s a lot of internal and external things going on.

“We’ve kind of gone back to having more fun and not overthinking it. I told him to just be a 5- or 6-year-old kid who just loves to play.”

Since a 4-0 loss to Portland to open Leagues Cup play, Steffen has rediscovered that joy — and form — in a way he hadn’t all season.

He couldn’t do much about the three goals — a penalty and two rebounds off of otherwise good saves —  he’s allowed in the two games since, but he’s been noticeably putting his body on the line more often and making acrobatic saves.

Steffen has quickly become a fan favorite during Leagues Cup for his heroics in penalties against León and 15 saves over the last two games. But for a good portion of the season, advanced stats weren’t friendly to Steffen. Neither was the perception outside of Rapids HQ.

He said he’s not on social media much, but as a keeper, he knows the scrutiny will always be there.

“When you hear stuff that’s not nice or not so good, of course, you’re not going to feel good about it. But I try not to look into those things and just focus on what I can control and that’s playing to the best of my ability,” Steffen said. “I just continue to work hard and focus on those things and at the end of the day, that always overpowers my mistakes and all that noise.”