Mike Winter is a retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He spent four seasons in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

and earned six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the United States national team.

NASL

Winter was born in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. In 1972, the St. Louis Stars of the

(NASL) selected Winter as their goalkeeper. That year, he had the second lowest

goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

(GAA) in the league, behind Kenny Cooper. That achievement led to his selection as the 1972 NASL Rookie of the Year. Winter was the goalie of record on February 13, 1974, when the visiting

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

team dismantled the Stars, 11–4, in an indoor match before 12,241 fans at the

St. Louis Arena St. Louis Arena (known as the Checkerdome from 1977 to 1983) was an indoor arena in St. Louis, Missouri. The country's second-largest indoor entertainment venue when it opened in 1929, it was home to the St. Louis Blues and other sports franchis ...

. It was the last of three Red Army indoor matches on the tour. Winter spent the 1973 and 1974 seasons with the Stars before the

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

selected him in the 1975 NASL Expansion Draft. He played one season with the Sting, then left the NASL.

National team

In 1972, Winter earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

with the U.S. national team. He never became a regular starter for the national team as he had significant competition in the nets from Mike Ivanow and

Bob Rigby Bob Rigby (born July 3, 1951) is an American retired soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He played twelve seasons in the North American Soccer League, three in the Major Indoor Soccer League, one in the Western Soccer Alliance and earned si ...

. However, he did earn six caps, but had no shutouts, and more significantly, no wins.U.S. Men's National Team Player Registry: U - Z

References

External links

U.S.SoccerPlayers.com bio

1952 births American men's soccer players Men's association football goalkeepers Austrian emigrants to the United States Chicago Sting (NASL) players Living people North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players St. Louis Stars (soccer) players United States men's international soccer players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-footy-goalkeeper-stub