From Manuel Neuer impressions to six-yard-box MMA fights: The wild journey that prepared Columbus Crew star Patrick Schulte for his USMNT opportunity

The joke is that you have to be a little bit crazy to be a goalkeeper. Schulte doesn't argue against it. This was a life he chose, actually, and it wasn't one that those around him really wanted thrust upon him.

Growing up, Schulte played multiple sports. He played basketball through high school and, through hindsight, he actually credits his time as a guard with helping him read the game as a goalkeeper. Soccer can seem a bit slower after spending winters diagnosing pick-and-rolls. At least, that's how Schulte saw it as he grew through the game in his teen years.

His father, Tim, was a goalkeeper during his playing days, but during his first few years in the game, Schulte was a left-winger. With his father coaching the team of 11 and 12-year-olds, Schulte's initial tastes of the game came out wide with the ball at his feet and his eyes on goal.

"I was okay," Schulte can admit of his outfield career all these years later. "I was never anything special."

That was until one of his teammates opted to quit soccer for good to pursue American football. That teammate was his side's goalkeeper, and his departure left Schulte's father with a dilemma. The team needed someone in net, and his son was all too eager to step up, despite his father's best wishes.

"My dad pushed back on it for like a good six months," Schulte recalls of the big decision. "He eventually allowed me to make the transition. Honestly, our team was really good, so I didn't like it at all at first because it was so slow. We were winning 7-0 or 8-0 And it would be freezing cold nights, and I'd just be like, 'What am I even doing back here?'

Schulte eventually fell in love with it. The training, the work, the feeling of making a save - Schulte inevitably caught the bug. And, when he eventually joined up with St. Louis Scott Gallagher, the famed youth club that has produced USMNT stars like Tim Ream and Josh Sargent, Schulte was given a role model.

"A lot of credit goes to my coach, Tim Kelly," Schulte says, "He's at St. Louis City now. He would send me [Manuel] Neuer clips all the time and would be like, 'This is the way the game is going! You have to play with your feet! You have to play off your line!' It was a lot of Neuer clips and [Marc-Andre] Ter Stegen as well as I started to get older. At first, though, all I did was study Neuer like crazy."

It worked out, didn't it? In January 2022, Schulte left Saint Louis University to sign a Generation Adidas deal. Days later, he was drafted 12th overall by Columbus.

In many ways, the start of Schulte's professional career didn't quite go to plan. He spent his first professional season with Columbus Crew 2, winning the inaugural MLS Next Pro Cup and MLS Next Pro Goalkeeper of the Year honors for his efforts. The following season, circumstances would slightly open the door for Schulte. It would ultimately turn out to be career-changing.

After starter Eloy Room was forced out of the squad due to visa issues, Schulte started the Crew's first game of the 2023 MLS season. An injury to Room later on in the season gave Schulte another chance. He never looked back, helping lead the Crew to the 2023 MLS Cup in his first season as a starter.

"I had some struggles at the beginning," he admits now. "It was a rollercoaster, to be honest, that whole first year. It still is a rollercoaster, to be honest, but, at that time, Wilfried was just like, 'You're our guy, and you're going to mess up sometimes, but we want you to keep improving'. He said, 'We like how you play, so you're our goalie', and that just calmed me down a whole lot.

"You're never totally comfortable. You're always wanting to improve and always playing like your job is on the line, but to hear that from your coach? That's a big motivator and a big confidence boost. It shows he cares about you."

That confidence has been key to Schulte's rise. Even after winning MLS Cup a few months prior, it felt like Schulte's real breakout came during the run to the final of the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, one which could have ended early after an error from the young goalkeeper. Staring down mighty Liga MX side Tigres, Schulte bounced back, though, making two saves in a penalty shootout to help the Crew seal the upset.

"I'm not surprised to be honest with you, because this is not easy what I'm asking my players," Nancy said of Schulte after that win. "I've learned a lot today about what we can do, about the adjustments that I could have done better, but at the end of the day, Pat deserved that. I'm not surprised because the first question that people ask me is, 'Do you think that Pat is going to be able to keep going?' And I say, 'Why do you think like this?' Let's see. He knows that he has to evolve, and so I'm really happy for him."

On the heels of that run, Schulte was named to the U.S. Olympic squad, giving him an experience that he can already look back on as defining.

It's not even the games that Schulte really thinks about most when he looks back, although they were a huge step for him. No, when Schulte thinks about the Olympics, he misses the little moments, the quiet ones that weren't on TV. It was in those moments that he and his U.S. teammates wrote their stories together, and it was in those moments that Schulte began to feel like a part of it all.

"I haven't, besides playing travel soccer or basketball or whatever, just been able to spend time bouncing city to city for two-and-a-half to three weeks in hotels with your boys," he said. "You come back to the hotel, and it's like, 'Alright, what are we going to do?' We were all in Clash Royale groups, so we'd just sit there on the bus playing Clash Royale. We'd be watching each other going against random people, rooting each other on. I think that those bonds are the best part about it. The games, the experience, you're at the Olympics for crying out loud, and that part's amazing, but that off-the-field stuff was just as memorable for me."

At those Olympics, Schulte and the U.S. went head-to-head with some of the very best. After being blasted by a France team that included rising stars Desire Doue, Michael Olise, and Rayan Cherki, the U.S. smashed New Zealand and Guinea to get out of the group. Once out, though, they fell short to Achraf Hakimi's Morocco in a 4-0 Round of 16 defeat.

Overall, Schulte felt the Olympics were a launching point, one that prepared him for the USMNT chances to come.

"It's so different. You're playing meaningful games and, for me, that was the most pressure I ever felt," he said. "That was my first international tournament, and I'd never experienced anything like that."

A few months later, he was in the full-strength U.S. squad, making his first appearance with that group in a friendly against Canada. It ended as a 2-1 loss for the Americans, but Schulte was clearly the USMNT's Man of the Match with five saves while completing 36 of his 37 passes.

"It was a different feeling, for sure, but it was just motivation and wanting to leave my mark," Schulte said. "I didn't put pressure on myself or put weight on it, but it was a chance for me to show the team and the guys that I can play at that level and that I do belong. It was a chance for me, not to do anything crazy, but to just fit in, leave a mark, and show I can play at that level. I know I belong."

Schulte has earned just one cap since Mauricio Pochettino arrived, featuring in the annual January camp, but he has been ever-present in the U.S. team. He was named to the U.S. squad for the CONCACAF Nations League and, as things stand, is certainly expected to be part of the Gold Cup squad this summer.

One would think that, after all of these camps, Schulte would have adjusted to his new normal. Not quite.

"You definitely still get butterflies when you see that kit," he says. "You feel it when that kit is sitting there right in front of you."

Heading towards the World Cup, Schulte finds himself in a goalkeeper battle. Crystal Palace's Matt Turner is the incumbent, but due to his lack of minutes on the club level, that race has opened up. Schulte, along with the Colorado Rapids' Zack Steffen, has been in camp pushing Turner for that spot. As the youngest of the group, Schulte has a lot of ground to make up. Those that he's competing with are, oddly enough, helping him with that.

"With Matt, just the way he moves across the goal is so fluid and so quick," Schulte says. " His flexibility and the way he moves, I don't understand it sometimes. He gets so low and is still able to push to get so wide. I ask questions about that. What's he doing off the field? Is that genetics? Same with Zack. Zack has learned so much during his time as a pro so for me, it's really just getting as much information off of those guys as I can. They're tremendous and so knowledgeable and they want to share all of their stuff with me. There are no secrets, so that's why I appreciate those guys so much."

He adds, "I'm not like an introvert, but I don't talk a whole lot, but I can pick up so much from those guys just watching to see what I can improve on."

Ironically, Turner provides Schulte with something of a blueprint. Turner, like Schulte, had a meteoric rise in MLS before, in the last months of the cycle, earning the role of starter for the 2022 World Cup. The 2026 tournament is looming, and Schulte knows it.

During his first few months with the USMNT, Schulte realized that the expectations are different for goalkeepers who wear that shirt. Tim Howard, Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Brad Guzan, Brad Friedel - these guys set a tone. They weren't passengers as part of their respective USMNT groups - they were backbones.

"You have to be Mr. Reliable," Schulte says. "You have to be the guy who is going to save points or save wins. Not that it's pressure, but more so a confidence booster. You have to be that guy and, if you're not that guy, it's going to cause questions...That expectation is sometimes different than with your club. When you go there, you have to be that guy. You have to be that standout, that stud, that can go out there and earn the team wins."

Over the next 12 months, Schulte, like Turner, Steffen, and every other American goalkeeper out there, will look to show Pochettino that they can be that guy. They will all look to show that they are game-winners and game-changers. They will look to show Pochettino that they can be trusted to make the big save and provide the big moment that can be the difference between World Cup success and failure. Margins are fine in tournament play. Sometimes, all it takes is that one.

Schulte understands that, and he's feeling everything that comes with a World Cup. Those around him are, too.

"It's funny because when I talk to my friends and stuff, they all just want to ask me all these questions," he says with a laugh. "Sometimes, I have to just be like, 'Man, how was your day at work?!?' I answer questions about soccer all the time, so I have to just be like 'How are you doing selling car insurance?' or whatever."

There's a reason those questions are coming in: excitement. Those close to Schulte have a first-row ticket to his rollercoaster ride, and they're as excited as he is to see him on it. Now, as he continues to establish himself as a USMNT goalkeeper, he has a real chance to be a part of this thing, and he's hoping to seize it.

"The World Cup is in a year, and there's nothing more that I want than to be on that squad and be able to represent the U.S. at a World Cup," he says. "I want to be the starter but at the same time, I'd accept any role. I just want to be a part of that group."

The lessons he's learned so far will help get him there. Nancy taught him about bravery. Kelly taught him about Neuer. His Olympic teammates showed him brotherhood, and Turner showed him the pathway and the best ways to leap, both physically and metaphorically. The rollercoaster rolls on, though, and, as Schulte says, he hopes the ride doesn't end any time soon.