With reflection and reinforcement - and big saves Wednesday - Turner looking to reclaim No. 1 GK spot

FOXBOROUGH — Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner emerged from the 2018 preseason as Brad Friedel’s No. 1, holding onto that job for a majority of the season. It had come as a surprise to many in Revs Colony: a young keeper beating out the competition in Brad Knighton and Cody Cropper? Just what in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?

And for a good portion of the season, he did well. At one point, he had acknowledged the work he had put in with the USL’s Richmond Kickers in 2017, especially that of free kicks in dangerous areas. Case in point: a massive save of D.C. United — now FC Cincinnati — striker Darren Mattocks, who had looked for the Upper 90 in their June 30 contest at Gillette Stadium.

Turner put on his Superman cape and rose to deny Mattocks the goal in what turned into a 3-2 Revs win.

Yet as the 2019 preseason opened two-plus weeks ago in Foxborough, the New Jersey native acknowledged that he still had plenty of work to do during the offseason, especially after he found himself supplanted by Knighton for most of September and October.

“There were obviously a couple of areas of my game that I needed to polish up and get a lot better at,” Turner said outside the Revolution locker room prior to the club's trip to Marbella, Spain, which wraps up today. “I need to still get better with my feet, get comfortable with the ball, and that’s an area of my game where I feel like I can make improvements and help this team. Coming out for crosses and dealing with distribution into the box.

“My shot-stopping has been good all year and just those areas of the game, game-management and more experience is going to help me more and more.”

For a goalkeeper looking to improve, Turner noted a great deal of his offseason was spent watching film.

“For me, it was re-watching games and seeing where my missed footsteps were, lots of conversations with the coaching staff, and those weeks leading up to Thanksgiving before the break and just areas of my game where I felt like I could improve, or situations I could have handled better throughout the season,” he said.

And it’s not just watching film; much like he said during last summer’s World Cup, it’s about learning from some of the best in the world.

“Watching the guys in the (Premier League) do it,” he said. “Watching those games week-in and week-out and seeing how they approach certain scenarios and implementing that into my game.”

Not only that, Turner said he had to take serious time over the last two-plus months to think back on everything that occurred in 2018 as a way to approach 2019.

“It’s reflection, and seeing weak points where I could have been better, and seeing strong points where I could have been better. Managing those peaks and troughs, and creating a steady increase throughout the season where we know that we could have done better,” he said.

Recently, Turner embraced a new role: taking over for former New England midfielder Kelyn Rowe with the NEGU Crew, doing so at Rowe’s behest.

“It’s something over the past couple of years that I’ve seen Kelyn doing, and Kelyn and I are very close,” he noted. “It was something I always wanted to be involved in, but my first two years, I was in Richmond. Last year was nice to be involved in, meeting the kids in the NEGU Crew, and going up to the fans with the kids after the games. Seeing how special the moment is for the family, I didn’t want to let that die here in New England.

“It was a conversation between Kelyn and I, so we agreed it would be good for me to keep the tradition alive. It’ll be Matt’s NEGU Crew in 2019.”

He stressed that even though he has a new role in curing a bad day, it does not mean iota one when it comes to maintaining his No. 1 positioning with the first team — even on the six scheduled NEGU days.

“No, that’s something outside of soccer; that doesn’t cement my role with anything,” he said. “That’s something completely different. My role with the first team is going to depend on entirely what I do on the field, and how I approach every day of training. I’m approaching it like I’m the No. 3 as I always do, and I’m going to work my hardest and earn that No. 1 spot again.”

One has to think Turner should be well on his way to reclaiming that role, at least for the season opener, especially after the 45 minutes he played on Wednesday vs. Ukrainian power Dynamo Kyiv: right after the second-half restart, Turner, coming off the bench to replace Cropper, made a tremendous penalty save to keep Kyiv ahead 1-0.

Yet after the Revolution made it 2-1 — Juan Agudelo had headed home Cristian Penilla’s cross, and Carles Gil slotted home — Turner came up with two massive saves in the 82nd minute to deny the Ukrainians an equalizer. The first came on a dive to his right, before re-correcting and making another stop mere heartbeats later, this time to his left.

They were saves one expects to find out of an incumbent No. 1 goalkeeper, and there are still three-plus weeks for Turner to prove again that’s his role moving forward.