Orlando City Hires Tim Mulqueen as Goalkeeper Coach

Orlando City has hired its third goalkeeper coach in three years of MLS play with the addition of former MLS and United States youth national team goalkeeper coach Tim Mulqueen. He succeeds Stewart Kerr and Marcos Machado in becoming the club’s first-team goalkeeper coach. Kerr left the club on Jan. 5 and accepted the same role with the Vancouver Whitecaps, due to his family living in Canada.

Kerr, who had worked with Joe Bendik previously in Toronto, revived Bendik’s career in 2016, helping the Lions’ goalkeeper become one of the most valuable players on the Orlando City roster. He won MLS Save of the Week 11 of 34 times — including four in a row — and MLS Save of the Year a season ago and kept the Lions in games they often had no business being in.

Like Kerr, Mulqueen has worked with Bendik before.

“It's a familiar face for me, so I think we have a lot of things in common, and I'm looking forward to working with him again,” Bendik said at today’s media session following team preseason medicals.

“It was an easy decision to bring Tim aboard,” Lions General Manager Niki Budalic said in a team press release. “He brings with him years of experience and has taught some of the best. We are glad he will be rejoining Joe [Bendik], Earl [Edwards, Jr.] and Mason [Stajduhar].”

A New Jersey native, Mulqueen joins Orlando City from Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton, FL, where he served as associate athletic director since 2014. After graduating from St. Joseph’s University in 1988, Mulqueen played professionally in the American Premier Soccer League and United Soccer League until 1995.

Mulqueen was previously an MLS goalkeeper coach for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars — now New York Red Bulls — from 1996 to 1999 before working with the Kansas City Wizards — now Sporting Kansas City — from 2000 to 2004. Mulqueen was part of the Wizards’ 2000 Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup championships and their 2004 U.S. Open Cup title run. While with the MetroStars, Mulqueen coached U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard, whose career was just getting started.

In addition to Bendik and Howard, Mulqueen has previously worked with Lions goalkeepers Earl Edwards, Jr. and Mason Stajduhar, as well as Brad Guzan, Kasey Keller, Chris Seitz, Zac MacMath, Bill Hamid, Sean Johnson, Jeff Attinella, and Tony Meola. Under Mulqueen’s tutelage, Meola won the MLS MVP and Goalkeeper of the Year awards in 2000.

Mulqueen was goalkeeper coach for the United States at the 2005 and 2007 FIFA U-17 World Championships, the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2007 and 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cups.