Contrary to what the rest of the world might know, goalkeeper Patrick Schulte did not first rise to prominence helping Crew II to the 2022 MLS NEXT Pro championship or by backstopping the Columbus Crew to the 2023 MLS Cup crown.
He also didn’t first demonstrate his prowess for stopping penalty kicks in the Crew's dramatic 4-3 shootout win over Tigres UANL of Mexico in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals this April.
Schulte originally made his mark and turned heads in the Second Round of the 2019 Lamar Hunt Open Cup as an 18-year-old high school senior for Division II Saint Louis FC.
You heard that right – an 18-year-old.
Schulte stopped not one, not two, but three penalty kicks in that shootout to help the visitors to a 3-1 win over the Des Moines Menace after the teams played out a 1-1 draw through 120 minutes of win-or-go-home soccer in Iowa on May 15, 2019.
“Playing at Drake Stadium [site of that Open Cup Second Rounder] and the kind of emotions I was going through was pretty surreal,” he told USsoccer.com in a recent interview.
Schulte conceded a penalty kick early in the match, but the visitors knotted things up at 1-1. “I was pretty nervous,” he said, remembering back to that formative moment in his career. “I was a lot different than what I am now. But it was pretty awesome.”
It certainly was a match to treasure. On plane trips with the Crew, where Schulte has become a shining star and the club’s undisputed No1, he’ll sometimes look at photos and videos from that match in 2019.
“I kind of relive it,” admitted Schulte, called up for his first USMNT senior camp this year and a likely member of the U.S. Olympic side that will head to the Paris Summer Games in July. “It's pretty cool.”
Cool it is, and we'll help everyone relive it a bit.
Cup Shootout Sparks for Young Schulte
During the shootout, a partisan Menace crowd cheered on their all-amateur heroes from behind the goal.
But that didn’t intimidate Schulte, who dove to his left to deny Joshua Coan on Des Moines' first attempt. After Andreas Volk converted his chance to the right side, Schulte rose to the occasion again, producing a two-handed save while moving to his left on Nick Perea and then sealing the victory by sprawling to his right to stop Gaoussou Bakayoko.
Russell Cicerone – now of USL Championship powers and 2024 Open Cup Quarterfinalists Sacramento Republic – converted the game-winning spot-kick for Saint Louis.
“Before the shootout, all the players were like, ‘We've just got to make three because Patrick's going to save one.’ That really helped me,” Schulte said in 2019. “I'm going to save one and they're going to finish all theirs. Once I saved the first one, I felt really confident. After that, I saved my second – [Perea] took a penalty kick during a run of play, and I had an idea of where he was going to go – and then the third.
“I just picked a way and that's the way I'm going to go,” Schulte said about the process that has seen him become a shootout specialist – among the best in MLS. “I’ve got to make sure I cover the ground and make myself big on the way I'm going to go. It turns out they went the way I guessed.”
There was little doubt that Schulte learned much about himself on that spring night.
“I learned that it doesn't matter how big or how little the moment is, they all matter. One of the biggest things [I learned] was I can do it, especially at that age,” he said recently. “It was my first game and a big moment for the team. Being able to know that I can step up and make plays, it was good for my career.
“Just to take that next step and kind of calm myself down,” said Schulte, who was linked with Premier League giants Arsenal and Manchester United earlier this year. “And just have confidence in myself and don't doubt myself.”
After the game, Schulte got big hugs from his mother Kathy and grandmother Coco. They made the 350-mile drive from Saint Louis to Des Moines with his father Tim to root on their favorite goalkeeper. “They all drove up Wednesday morning when I told them I was starting,” he remembered. “Just having them there in the stands was really special.”
