Matt Turner knows what he has to do to regain the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper job

It isn’t normal for Subaru Park to be the stage for one of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s most important roster battles.

That isn’t just because the team hasn’t come to town for over six years, a wait that will finally end in November. It’s more because major U.S. roster battles don’t usually play out in MLS stadiums.

They’re supposed to happen on the big stages in Europe where the big stars play. And for the most part, there are enough Americans on those stages to fill out a 26-player World Cup squad.

But at one key spot, all the leading candidates are in MLS. The position is goalkeeper, and the top four players on the depth chart are on this side of the Atlantic.

Coincidentally, three of those four will have played at Subaru Park in the Union’s last five home games of the regular season. Downingtown’s Zack Steffen visited with the Colorado Rapids in late July. Wayne’s Matt Freese, the current U.S. No. 1, will visit New York City FC on Oct. 4. And Matt Turner led the New England Revolution into Chester on Saturday.

The fourth, Patrick Schulte of the Columbus Crew, was here in May — and could visit again in the playoffs, the way things are going.

» READ MORE: The USMNT is finally back on track, and Mauricio Pochettino has done what he said he’d do

You heard from Steffen on these pages when he came home, and from Freese when the U.S. men trained in North Jersey. After Saturday’s game, it was Turner’s time, and as always, he had plenty to say.

“Everything I’ve ever done in my career, ever since putting on the national team shirt, it’s been to just have that feeling over and over and over again,” he told The Inquirer. “It’s the best feeling in the world for me to represent my country. And I hope that people never, ever question that, because that’s been my north star in my entire career. … How can I best position myself to help my country and push this team and this sport forward in this country?”

The 31-year-old’s commitment certainly is not in question. But his place on the U.S. depth chart currently is, and it’s why he was in town.

After spending his first six years as a pro with New England, Turner earned a historic move to English Premier League superpower Arsenal. Though he never fully settled there, he did enough to move to Nottingham Forest a year later, then to Crystal Palace on loan.

» READ MORE: Matt Freese is the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper — for now. He wants to try to keep the job.

But at that point, things froze. Turner played just four games for Palace, and they were all early-round cup contests. Anything bigger than that, he could only watch.

“I think the difficult part about not playing every week was that not only was I not playing at Crystal Palace, but there was no hope that if I trained really well I was going to play,” Turner said. “Whereas when I was at Arsenal, I knew I could really push, and if I was going to train really well, they were going to give me opportunities to play, and I was going to merit and earn those opportunities. So I think at Crystal Palace that was really difficult for me.”

That affected his U.S. form, too. The longtime starter was in net for five of Mauricio Pochettino’s first eight games as manager, then was dropped after playing poorly in March’s Nations League final four and a June friendly vs. Switzerland.

“It put me in a tough spot with the national team,” Turner said, “turning around and saying, ‘Oh, you know this is so important, I can’t mess this up, because this is the only game I’m going to have for however many months and I need to show my value.’”

» READ MORE: Zack Steffen showed his USMNT-level talents when he played the Union

French club Lyon (whose president at the time was Palace part-owner John Textor) came to save the day with a $9.1 million purchase. But Lyon’s financial troubles led French regulators to threaten relegation, so it tried to back out of the deal to cut costs. The outcomes included Textor’s resignation, Lyon winning an appeal to stay in France’s top league, and New England taking Turner on a loan through next summer’s World Cup.

For now, Turner can put all that aside and focus on playing well enough to return to the U.S. squad. Unfortunately, he can’t put aside the poor play of his current team. The Union’s 1-0 win Saturday was his fourth loss in seven games since coming home, though at least this one wasn’t really his fault.

Nor, seemingly, was it Turner’s fault that he, Steffen, and Schulte all weren’t called up for the U.S. team’s September games. Pochettino said he wasn’t dropping Turner for good, but wanted to see other candidates. Turner wasn’t surprised.

“I never have the expectation that I’ll be called into the national team,” he said, a headline-worthy remark on its own. “For me, it’s about performance. Obviously, I just got to New England at the time when [the national team staff] were making the decisions. … It still does take time to settle in, and the Revolution had a game during the international window.”

» READ MORE: Bruno Damiani’s goal gives the Union a much-needed win over New England

Over the time, Turner said, “there was conversation” with U.S. coaches, “but that’ll stay between me and them.”

This also was news. Word made the rounds last month that Pochettino doesn’t always talk regularly with players in the U.S. pool. Or at least, as he put it at one point, they’re welcome to call him, but he isn’t going to call them by default. Some fans weren’t happy with this, believing that the manager ought to be reaching out more.

The counterargument came quickly: Why is that a requirement? Especially since Pochettino wants to shake the program out of its recent complacency by pushing competition for roster spots.

Turner left no doubt about which side he’s on.

» READ MORE: The U.S. men’s soccer team will play at Subaru Park in November

“Of course there’s no requirement,” he said. “At the end of the day, he has really difficult decisions to make. … He’s not going to go around to every individual — how many players have played under Mauricio? It’s been quite a few. So it’s not like he can go to 70 different clubs and make everybody feel super special.”

We’ll know soon if Turner has made enough of a case. The roster for next month’s games against Ecuador and Australia will probably land next week. Pochettino has said he expects it to be the first squad where he starts narrowing the player pool toward the World Cup.

“I think the overarching message is just get back to having the rhythm of playing every week and being relied upon on by my team, and that will put me into the best way that I can then turn around and help the national team,” Turner said. “The way that they know that I can, the way that I have done in the past, even under them. They know what I’m capable of, which I’m grateful for, and now I’m just going to try to put in the work every week — get faster, stronger, better every time I can, and give them something to think about in terms of calling me in for the October window.”

The biggest moment of all is now six months away, and there are six U.S. games left until then. The time will pass quickly, but Turner doesn’t feel rushed.

» READ MORE: Where does FIFA’s decision to implement dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets fit into growing the game? We asked.

“I think there’s been so much buildup to it that you blink your eyes and it’s less than a year away,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of soccer to be played, a lot of national team games to be had, and I think for me — for Zack, for Matt [Freese], for Patrick, for Chris Brady, for Jonathan Klinsmann, for Roman [Celentano] — for anybody in the pool, every game is so valuable that we get to play in.”

The most important thing for himself right now, Turner said, is having a clearer head than he’s had in a while.

“I’ve been able to take a look at myself from the sideline of the national team this summer,” he said. “And now I can go forward, and hopefully, one step back, two or three steps forward, and I can continue to show my value and my worth.”