Zack Steffen’s “new reason to do what I do” arrived only a few months before another dramatic change shook up his life.
Before undergoing knee surgery in the middle of 2023, Steffen was still trying to establish a foothold as a goalkeeper for Middlesbrough (on loan from Manchester City) in the EFL Championship in England. Then his daughter, Vogue, entered the world.
Four months later, the Rapids came calling. And suddenly, the new dad had a new job — clear on the other side of the pond.
Even for one of the top keepers in the United States, life sometimes gets in the way.
“(Moving) internationally is tough, and then doing so with a 4-month-old is really hard,” Steffen told The Denver Post. “Making sure she’s comfy, trying to be fit and mentally sharp for a new season, there’s not just one thing that makes it tough.”
A rocky start in his new Rocky Mountain environment followed. But something a lot better took hold.
Vogue doesn’t yet take after one parent more than the other, but now that she’s a little more than a year old, Steffen says his favorite part about fatherhood is seeing her grow up and into her own person.
At 29 years old himself, Steffen has done a bit of the same in a new chapter. Entering Year 2 in Colorado, he’s learned and re-tooled as much about himself as he has about his game.
The results were so good that the U.S. men’s national team came calling last fall with a camp invite.
“There were definitely times last season when I was doing too much and I was exhausted, and I couldn’t perform either at home or on the field to my fullest because I just didn’t balance,” Steffen said. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot from last year and I have a great mentality. I feel fresh and I feel ready to go.”
A philosophy shift
Progression over perfection. Obsession over talent.
The Rapids’ goalkeepers pressed those phrases on T-shirts this preseason to serve as reminders. Few embody them quite like Steffen, who’s been infatuated with incremental improvement since arriving in Colorado a year ago.
After allowing, as Steffen put it, “a (expletive) load of goals” early last season (12 in the first seven games), he worked from home by cutting his own clips in Hudl, summarizing mistakes and areas of improvement and sending them to goalkeepers coach Chris Sharpe. That’s not out of the ordinary, but the duo took it up a notch by doing the same with clips from training.
“Way more homework,” Steffen said.
But film study was just a little bit easier with a late-night partner along for the ride.
OK, maybe Vogue doesn’t actually watch film with him. And it’s not always all that late, but sometimes Sharpe gets texts from Steffen as late as midnight — witching-hour territory for new parents.
No matter how hard Steffen is on himself — he’d be the first to tell you his mistakes — disconnecting from soccer for a while with his family makes self-criticism a bit nicer and more constructive.
Doing so with a sleeping baby on his chest is a bonus.
This preseason, the goalkeepers have started bringing that late-night text material to group meetings. Hudl clips are cut from the previous training session, with three good things and three bad things presented.
Those meetings, according to Rapids head coach Chris Armas, are almost as intense as what you’ll see from the group during training itself — when it’s easily the loudest on the practice field.
“Zack, Sharpe, the goalkeeper culture, they have a nice process,” Armas said. “They’re very honest, they work hard, they look at the finest of details. I go and sit in those unit meetings with them and they’re critiquing and they’re so tough on themselves with spacing, distances, footwork, handling, distribution, decision-making, game management, leadership — they do a great job.”
The mentor
Steffen’s 6-foot-3 frame and increasingly explosive athleticism are nothing to scoff at, but his superpower isn’t necessarily physical.
Amid a rough start to the 2024 season, especially when it came to certain advanced stats, he and his team leaned on his presence as a leader, an intangible that cannot be taught. Nor can it be injured or rehabbed.
The younger the player, the larger the impact.
With the Rapids’ goalkeepers outside of Steffen among the youngest in MLS (ages 17, 18 and 23), Sharpe noted it’s invaluable to have a “willing teacher of the nuances” like Steffen. But his impact isn’t limited to his position.
“It’s just a commanding personality. He’s got a nice aura about him,” Sharpe said. “And even with young players like Sam (Bassett) and other young guys around him, he adds some presence, some dominance that every team needs. It lifts everybody.”
Patrick Schulte, the Columbus Crew’s 23-year-old star goalkeeper who was at the January USMNT camp and is in the running for the World Cup job, struck gold with Steffen when they met and trained together for the first time.
That was in October, during Schulte’s second national team camp and Steffen’s first in years.
“He’s a mentor. He’s a guy I respect and I watch everything he does in training because I feel like I can take something away from his game just by watching and being around him,” Schulte told The Denver Post. “So I just try to be a sponge in the best way possible.”
Despite Steffen’s early departure during that camp due to a slight injury, the two sparked a friendship that has turned into FaceTime calls and texts.
Whether it’s to simply catch up or pick each other’s goalkeeping minds, the calls from Steffen almost always include cameos from Vogue and the other candid parts of his life. Those moments, Schulte said, are when Steffen always seems happiest.
Back on the world stage
The Rapids gathered in a hotel dining hall in Mexico during the preseason to watch Steffen’s national team return against Costa Rica — his first appearance in nearly three years. Sharpe watched on edge, especially witnessing each of his two Man-of-the-Match-earning stops in a shutout.
The second save — an acrobatic iron left paw on a powerful strike in the 56th minute — confirmed what Sharpe thought from the day the Rapids signed Steffen: He belonged back in that driver’s seat.
To refine and shape Steffen’s game for the Rapids and the USMNT, Sharpe and Armas have committed to tactical tweaks. New USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino wants his World Cup keeper to play close to goal, an adjustment for Steffen but one he said he enjoys.
“That was a tough transition (initially) because recent coaches have asked me to play high and aggressive,” Steffen said. “Last year, I was definitely trying to do too much. And now with the national team — and we’re also bringing this back to the Rapids — is just first and foremost, defend the goal and make the saves … and then let defenders defend and do their jobs.”
At Steffen’s best, he gets all the tiny details correct.
According to Sharpe, the focus for this pivotal 2025 season for Steffen and the club, especially with a 2026 World Cup roster spot on the line, is to find more consistency.
For Steffen, there’s no timeline on perfection because he and Sharpe know it will never come. Best indicated by the T-shirts, progression is the goal. And it’s been steady since Steffen first arrived.
“I’ve been confident since day one,” Sharpe said. “(Steffen) will be where he’s meant to be in 2026 when that World Cup comes around.”
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