Major League Soccer had a set of emergency goalkeepers who were signed to a contract with the league and were loaned to teams during emergencies in which they were missing a goalkeeper due to injuries or suspensions. The pool goalkeeper trained with an MLS club or an affiliated team when not assigned to a team; some pool goalkeepers, including Tim Melia, have gone on to be signed to permanent contract with their assigned teams.
When originally created, the league had several goalkeepers on their pool roster as roster sizes were small (around 20 players), with teams commonly only having two goalkeepers signed to the roster. However, MLS rosters have since increased to include up to 30 players and teams are required to carry three goalkeepers. In addition, the league's "extreme hardship" roster rules allow teams to bring up a goalkeeper from its MLS Next Pro side or another affiliate on a short-term basis, which has resulted in the need for a pool goalkeeper lessening. Whereas prior years saw three to four pool goalkeepers signed, now there is usually only one or two keepers on the pool roster.
List + MLS Pool Goalkeepers Season Goalkeepers References 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Clint Baumstark 2004 Clint Baumstark, Andrew Terris 2005 Clint Baumstark 2006 Sam Reynolds 2007 David Monsalve, Boris Pardo, Sam Reynolds, Kenny Schoeni 2008 Mike Graczyk, Andrew Kartunen, David Monsalve, Bryant Rueckner, Chris Sharpe 2009 Miguel Benitez, Ben Dragavon, Kevin Guppy, Bryant Rueckner, Chris Sharpe 2010 Kevin Guppy, Alex Horwath, Chris Sharpe 2011 Kevin Guppy, Chris Konopka, Chris Sharpe 2012 Scott Angevine, Brian Rowe, Chris Sharpe, Steve Spangler 2013 Doug Herrick, Brad Stuver 2014 Tim Melia, Daniel Withrow 2015 Trey Mitchell 2016 Trey Mitchell 2017 Billy Heavner 2018 Billy Heavner 2019 Charlie Lyon 2020 Charlie Lyon, Caleb Patterson-Sewell 2021 Greg Ranjitsingh 2022Cody Cropper2023Kenneth Vermeer Lists prior to 2007 are incomplete
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