Max Anchor went from being cut by the Vancouver Whitecaps, picked up by the Seattle Sounders, and now training with Belgium ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understandably been a whirlwind six months for the 21-year-old goalkeeper from Surrey, B.C. after his first professional contract with Vancouver came to an end when his 2026 option was declined by the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n
Picked up by Cascadia rivals Seattle through MLS\u2019 End-of-Year Waivers process before the calendar turned to 2026, Anchor\u2019s most recent sojourn has fast-tracked the goalkeeper, who also spent time on loan with the Canadian Premier League\u2019s Pacific FC, to the pinnacle of the international stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was speaking with (Tom Dutra, the Sounders\u2019 director of goalkeeping) about two or three weeks ago when Belgium was coming (into Seattle), that they would probably ask for a fourth goalkeeper just for training,\u201d Anchor recounted in an interview published by the Sounders on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know much about what was going on, and then about three days ago, he was like, \u2018Hey, I know we\u2019re on break, but can you come back? Belgium needs a goalkeeper,\u201d and I dropped everything and came back home.\u201d<\/p>\n All the while, Red Devils head coach Rudi Garcia, who normally likes to train with four goalkeepers to keep training sessions even, was unable to rely on RB Leipzig\u2019s Maarten Vandervoordt, who missed out from Belgium\u2019s final squad list, as he was not released by his club.<\/p>\n The Belgians instead opted for Manchester United\u2019s Senne Lammens and Strasbourg\u2019s Mike Penders to back up long-time number one Thibault Courtois.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, especially (the World Cup) is the world\u2019s biggest stage, right? So everything\u2019s just about sharpness. Like you saw, there was a lot of finishing, a lot of small-sided (games) so it was just getting the touches and the tactical information in, and then being ready for game one.\u201d<\/p>\n Belgium, ahead of this summer\u2019s World Cup, also selected the Sounders\u2019 performance facility as their home base for the tournament.<\/p>\n Those two coincidences opened the door for Anchor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really good,\u201d recounted Anchor in the interview. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect (going) in but the guys were super welcoming, the coaching staff (were) super welcoming<\/a>, so it was super fun. I really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is like a dream come true, training with and sitting beside Thibault Courtois. If you told me that a couple years ago I\u2019d laugh at you so I\u2019ve been really enjoying it. It\u2019s hard to re-enact what he does, he just looks like he\u2019s not even trying half the time, but I tried my best.\u201d<\/p>\n Anchor is also far from the only former CPL player to have been involved in national team camps as an unannounced training player. Current Cavalry FC midfielder Ma\u00ebl Henry<\/a> was amongst those present in Charlotte to complete Jesse Marsch\u2019s pre-World Cup CanMNT complement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the likes of Toronto FC defender Lazar Stefanovic<\/a> and ex-Halifax Wanderers centre-back Cristian Campagna<\/a>, then with Toronto FC II and Vancouver Whitecaps 2, have both also earned calls in for these one-off scenarios.<\/p>\n Belgium open their World Cup on Monday at 3 p.m. E.T., with their Group G opener against Egypt at Seattle Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Anchor went from being cut by the Vancouver Whitecaps, picked up by the Seattle Sounders, and now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,210,5823,4098,144,1849],"class_list":["post-21182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-canada","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-mls","tag-news","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116753871868824941","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}