You couldn’t script it any better for John McCarthy.
LAFC won their first-ever championship in no small part thanks to the former Philadelphia Union goalkeeper, who came off the bench in the 117th minute of MLS Cup. He would go on to stop spot kicks from José Martínez and Kai Wagner, setting the stage for LAFC to take the wildest MLS Cup of all time by converting three of their four penalty attempts after a 3-3 extra time draw.
“We know what he can do on penalties. We’ve seen it, we train them,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo told reporters after the match, indicating that the team at least considered sending McCarthy in for Maxime Crépeau even if the Canadian had not been both injured and sent off in a late collision.
“Couldn’t happen to a better guy. John is one of the heartbeats of this team,” added Cherundolo, who later referred to McCarthy as “the best number two in the league.”
A Philadelphia native who stayed close to home to attend La Salle University, McCarthy made his pro debut for the Rochester Rhinos, only to parlay that into a deal with the Union in 2015. He spent four seasons with Philadelphia, and while he generally backed up Andre Blake, he did develop cult hero status at Subaru Park for his penalty kick expertise during the club’s U.S. Open Cup runs.
However, the Union let McCarthy walk after the end of the 2018 season, and he had to dip back down into the USL Championship to find the right landing spot. He parlayed a strong season with the Tampa Bay Rowdies into a return to MLS with Inter Miami.
While he picked up a decent number of starts under Phil Neville, he never quite took hold of the job, and he joined LAFC as a free agent in January 2022. Before stepping into MLS Cup and becoming a hero, he hadn’t played a match since an August Leagues Cup Showcase match against Club América. His last competitive minutes, and only official LAFC appearance before Saturday, came nearly six months earlier.
Ilie Sánchez said LAFC “knew how good John is in goal,” bringing up that friendly against the Liga MX giants. On that day, McCarthy saved one spot kick and got his hands to three more attempts. This time, he had just a bit more luck.
Maybe the Union should have seen what was coming. After all, while playing for Philadelphia, McCarthy found himself in a penalty tiebreaker against his old club, Rochester. The result? McCarthy saved three penalties in a round of 16 match that the Union would win.
Later in that same Open Cup run, Jim Curtin was brave enough to bring McCarthy in as a last-second sub for Blake during the final against Sporting Kansas City. McCarthy did stop a Krisztián Németh penalty, but as was the case at the Banc of California Stadium, the Union would come up short.
“Look, soccer gods have a funny way of working,” said Union head coach Jim Curtin with a reluctant chuckle. “We didn’t have Johnny and Gareth Bale being the ones that did us in today. But again, soccer is a funny sport that way. And then, those are the guys that stepped up in a big spot.”
It was a stunning but appropriate end to a completely wild game. Maxime Crépeau’s stomach-turning injury brought McCarthy, one of the substitutes least likely to play on the day, into a match that had been unhinged from the jump. That’s not a recipe for a goalkeeper to have a great day at the office, given how much the position is about poise and composure.
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