To hear Matt VanOekel talk about it, Major League Soccer was a long-storied, mythical place only talked about in legend. He’d seen players leave his teams and leagues to play in MLS and had teammates come from America’s top league before. But after the 30-year-old goalkeeper made his debut with Real Salt Lake on Saturday in a 0-0 draw with the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena, he still sounded as though playing with and against players that were on the field this week was something that happened only in imagination.
“I know I’m a kid in a candy shop right now,” he grinned. “It was incredible. It was a dream come true. It’s taken me ten years to get to the MLS. I’m glad that I was able to showcase my stuff today.”
Van Oekel toiled in the second division for nine seasons, earning occasional tryouts with MLS clubs. He played for Minnesota and Edmonton during a career that saw him ultimately earn NASL Goalkeeper of the Year honors in 2016 after a record-setting year with Edmonton when he notched 16 shutouts and had a remarkable 0.55 goals against average to finally draw the attention of RSL’s technical staff.
After the departure of Jeff Attinella in the expansion draft, Salt Lake had a need for a goalkeeper to back up Nick Rimando, who will likely miss extended time this season while on international duty as the U.S. National Team goes through the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup and qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Interim Head Coach Daryl Shore had seen plenty of VanOekel during Shore’s time as a coach of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and RSL’s first call after Attinella was selected was to acquire the free agent goalkeeper.
“When you’re looking for quality goalkeeping, you look for experience and Matt kind of ticks all the boxes. He wanted to be here and we wanted him here, so it worked out great,” RSL General Manager Craig Waibel said. “He’s a challenged professional. He’s sat in difficult spots in games and made difficult saves. It wasn’t that hard of a search. It was one phone call and the deal was done.”
A position of need for RSL was an opportunity for VanOekel to progress in his career, even knowing his opportunities would potentially rare in playing behind Rimando – the all-time MLS leader in wins and shutouts.
“It’s a new challenge,” he explained. “I wanted to challenge myself. I was in the second division for nine years and it was a great opportunity for me to keep progressing and see how far I can continue to go and how much better I can get.”
Since arriving in camp in January, he has been building up to the speed and quality of play – two of the aspects he noticed right away were different from where he had played in the NASL. With his first test on Saturday, he showed he was equal to the task while shutting down a prolific New York attack that averaged over two goals per game over a stretch of nine consecutive matches without being shutout at home.
“I thought he was phenomenal,” RSL forward Yura Movsisyan, who served as captain on Saturday. “It’s not easy playing your first game but I think he has enough experience to know that we needed him to come up big and he did.”
For his part, VanOekel credited his teammates for a solid defensive effort for 90 minutes that kept him from needing to make a save for the first hour. Playing behind Chris Schuler and Aaron Maund, he finished the match with three saves against an attack that includes high-scoring forward Bradley Wright-Phillips.
In the end, the venue, the jerseys, the opponents and the crowd were all just window-dressing on an incredible experience that he’ll remember.
“It’s about playing soccer. Eleven of us together and the guys on the bench and back home all supporting us and we knew that we could come here and get a result,” he said. “It was incredible. I would have loved to have been home playing in front of our fans … words can’t explain how much fun I got to have today.”
Rimando is expected to return this week, but will likely continue to miss time throughout the year on international duty. With one game now under his belt, Real Salt Lake can remain confident in those matches with VanOekel protecting the net.
