LEARNING THE ROPES

Even though he hails from a family with an impressive goalkeeping background, Michael Mejia realizes that there is always something to learn.

And sometimes, the learning curve could be a steep one as he transitions from the outdoor to the indoor game with the Baltimore Blast.

Naturally, there are similarities. The most important one: Goalies need to stop the opposition from scoring any way he or she can. But there are other aspects of the game to learn.

If they can’t, they won’t have a job for long.

As well as the 25-year-old Mejia has excelled in front of the net, he has learned that the indoor game is played with much different field dimensions and rules and regulations and offers plenty of different challenges than the outdoor variety.

"For example, the boards, the ball never goes out," he said in a recent interview. "You have time outs. The structure of the game for four quarters."

Mejia's biggest challenge? Game management.

"You have a lot more action in indoor soccer," he said. "Some of the goalkeepers are averaging anywhere from eight to 12 saves a game. The last time I saw that in an outdoor game was against Chattanooga FC in semifinals," he said of Flower City Union's stunning upset en route to the 2023 National Independent Soccer Association title. "You're not going to have a game where you just have one save and one cross and that was it.

"It's time when I need to go long, or I need to play short. I need to go against the boards. You get pressed in a smaller space; you can use the boards. So, it's not like 11 v 11, so you can just kick it out. You've got to know your angles of the boards. That's been definitely something I'm looking forward to continuing, growing."

He knew that head coach David Bascome is facing a big challenge because he has been coaching and teaching a young team after the Blast decided not to bring back many veterans.

"They did keep a handful of guys, and then they brought in another core of guys, younger, quicker, more electric," the goalkeeper said. "I guess you could say and just the vibes at training have been amazing. Coach Bascome has done a great job, just teaching us the fundamentals. That's key."

As a rookie with the Major Arena Soccer League team, Mejia has understood the pecking order as the No. 3 keeper. He is behind Mike Zierhoffer, Baltimore regular netminder last year (19 games, 9-7-2 record) and Julian Rodriguez (three games with Utica City FC last season).

As third goalie, Mejia didn’t even suit up for the Blast in its 8-6 win over the Harrisburg Heat in its 8-6 season-opening win on Sunday, Dec. 8. Baltimore’s next game is at the Milwaukee Wave on Friday, Dec. 20.

Mejia knows Rodriguez, who hails from Queens, N.Y., and had high praise for Zierhoffer.

"He's also been another amazing guy in the locker room, just in terms of helping me cope with the game, " he said. "He played at Clemson, so he was an outdoor keeper. He's telling me, it's going to be tough. It's going to feel strange at first. He's been helping me out a lot."

If that was his fate in his Major Arena Soccer League rookie campaign, the 5-11, 165-lb. Mejia was willing to sit, watch and learn.

"This has always been my approach," he said. "I show up to training, I put my head down, and I just try to give everything I can. I try to work my tail off every single day in training, from knowing my role as a rookie. Just being there for teammates, being a good teammate.

"Things are not always going to be pretty in training, but just being as respectful as possible to other teammates. Am I hopeful? Of course. I definitely feel like training camp has been going well for me. We're four weeks now. I think I've competed. But ultimately, we're a team, and whoever coach Bascome throws out on game day, if it's me, if it's Michael, if it's Julian, I'm going to be there for them just as much as I would want them to be there for me."

Oh yeah, about the Mejia family business.

Mejia had plenty of role models growing up, which included his father, older brothers and even a cousin who mastered the tricks of the goalkeeper's trade.

“It’s nice to be able to turn around and whether it’s my brother, whether it’s my cousin, like, [and ask] ‘Hey, listen, man, what do you think about this?’ ” he said. “Nobody understands a goalkeeper but another goalkeeper. So that was quite nice having that growing up. At times, it just sucked because they’re very harsh. But it’s one of those things that molds you into who you are.”

His late father, Alfonso, guarded the net in the Honduran third division. His oldest brother Merlin has performed in the second division, and another sibling, Erick, has played at the amateur level. Brother Brian has never played in goal.

His cousin Kevin played in high school and college.

When Mejia played with Flower City, he was critiqued by Merlin on a regular basis, and he told his younger brother like it was.

“I could have a clean sheet. Somebody would think it’s a perfect game for a goalkeeper. But there’s still room for improvement after every game," Mejia said. "Who better than him to tell me: ‘Listen, this is what you need to work on. This is what you need to do, etc. etc.’ So, that’s nice.”

Mejia decided to become a goalkeeper on his own. No one forced him to don the gloves. He fell in love with the position at his very first Under-7 youth game. Erick took him to the match.

“There was no pressure,” Mejia said. “I don’t know if it [was in my] blood. It was meant to be.”

His coach asked if anyone wanted to be the goalkeeper. There were no takers.

“Nobody raised their hand,” Mejia said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s me. I want to do it.’ So, I got the shirt. We lost 3-1. I’m always going to remember that first game. I went home crying.”

New young goalkeepers tend to blame themselves for the goals, even when it is not their fault.

Since then, there has been considerably less crying by Mejia. After conceding a goal, a keeper needs a good case of amnesia, and a passion to learn the trade.

Outdoors, Mejia has loved the challenge of stopping the opposition.

“It’s the thought of trying to be perfect, not letting anything by,” he said. “That’s the mentality I’ve had since I was younger. You’re going to be the first line of offense, and you’re going to be the last line of defense. I don’t really know what satisfaction is of somebody scoring a 90th-minute winner when their header or a PK goes in.

“But I can tell you the satisfaction a goalkeeper gets when he makes that 85th-minute 1 v 1 save or in the 89th minute comes up big on a cross, or 1 v 1 or making a penalty save. It’s those moments where you look at your teammates. It’s like I’ve got your back. You guys ran your tail off for 90 minutes. My only job today was to save 1 v 1’s so we can win one today. That’s the appreciation I have of my position.”

At North Bergen High School in New Jersey, Meija attracted many colleges as he earned all-state honors three times and all-county honors four times.

Mejia played a year at Marywood University and another season at Fairleigh Dickinson before settling as the No. 1 keeper at Montclair State. In 2019, he played an important role in the unseeded Red Hawks reaching the NCAA Division III Sweet 16, as Montclair stunned Franklin & Marshall as he saved a penalty kick, before losing to Kenyon University.

After college, Meija tried out with a Costa Rican second division team but wasn’t offered a contract.

He found Flower City. After the team managed to grab the sixth and final playoff berth on the last day of the 2023 regular season, Meija backstopped the Rochester, N.Y.-based team to three road upsets at the LA Force, Chattanooga FC and Michigan Stars. That included shutouts in the final two matches and an outstanding penalty kick performance vs. Chattanooga.

"On the last match day, we were waiting on two results that needed to go our way," Meija said about reaching the postseason. "We didn't have the greatest season at Flower City. We all knew that there was something in the locker room, the vibe we had in the locker room. We knew it could be a special season.

"I wake up every single day, and I think about that because that was hard, that was determination, and we got it done as a team."

But after winning the title, Flower City left the league and dropped down a division to compete in the amateur National Premier Soccer League.

Meija and many of his teammates were forced to move on.

"We were all devastated," he said. "We felt that we were putting Rochester back on the map with that, with that amazing season."

He went on trial with New York Red Bulls II before finding employment with South George Tormenta FC in USL League One last summer.

Thanks to a former teammate, Raphael Araujo, currently with the St. Louis Ambush, Mejia secured a tryout with the Blast, impressed Bascome and made the cut.

His goal this season is, of course, to get some playing time. But Meija has a greater one in mind.

"I'm ambitious. I reach for the stars," he said. "I want to win this title. The goal is to win this title. I don't see why not. With the players we have, with the culture we have going on, with the coaching staff we have, with the training camp we've been having with the vibe that's currently around the locker room. I think we have what it takes. I'm just a small piece to the puzzle trying to go for the objective, and the objective is the national title."

Michael Lewis, who has covered indoor soccer for five decades, can be reached at @Soccerwriter at Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter).