“I guess I’m just kind of in it in those moments,” he said of the win-or-go-home game he capped with two more saves in the penalty shootout to send Austin FC to a first-ever Open Cup Semifinal. “I just try to stay at it for the entire game and give confidence to the guys in front of me – hopefully they know I’ve got their back no matter what.”
Stuver is the difference-maker in Austin green and black. Of the club’s two All-Stars, he’s the only one still influencing what comes next in 2025. And it’s quite a thing considering he arrived at the club in its inaugural year of 2021 with no fanfare and no realistic expectation of a starting role.
“I wasn’t expected to be a starter because I hadn’t ever played too many games before,” Stuver said with a smile about his seven years on the fringes. “I’d never been a concrete starter anywhere.”
For clarification, the number of MLS starts Stuver had amassed when he arrived in Austin, on the eve of his 30th birthday, was precisely nine. As a back-up for the majority of his pro career, most of his chances came in the Open Cup. He earned 13 Cup starts spread across his time with Columbus Crew and NYCFC of MLS and out on loan at Division II sides Wilmington Hammerheads and the Dayton Dutch Lions. “I’ve been part of these games, the Open Cup energy, for a long time,” he said with a smile.
Pool Goalkeeper to All-Star
Excelling over four years at Cleveland State, near his Ohio hometown of Twinsburg, Stuver impressed at the 2013 MLS Combine. He was drafted by the Montreal Impact, but the club decided not to sign him. Instead, he dropped into the peculiar purgatory known as the MLS Goalkeeper Pool.
“It was strange, but it was also super beneficial because I got to train with five different clubs [New England Revolution, Seattle Sounders, Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake and the Crew]," he said. "The goal was to get my foot in a door and make as many good impressions as I could.”
