It’s not easy for a Camel to become a Red Bull.
But that’s just what AJ Marcucci did when, in 2021, he became the first player to bridge the gap from the Division III program at Connecticut College to the professional top flight of Major League Soccer.
“I’m proud of the road I took and I loved my college days,” said the 25-year-old Marcucci, who became the first Conn College Camel drafted into MLS, after twice being recognized as the NCAA’s top Division III goalkeeper. “But not coming from one of the big schools, like Duke or Clemson or Stanford, or from overseas, the biggest hurdle was my confidence and feeling like I was really in the right place.”
The 6’3” Marcucci, with lightning reflexes and a firm command of his area, was outstanding among the small colleges of New England, the likes of Williams, Amherst and Middlebury. And in the small coastal city of New London, and on the even tinier campus of Conn College, he became a cult hero among the school’s 2000 or so students. With no football or baseball program, soccer – played in the heart of the campus on Harkness and Freeman Greens – is a big attraction.
After his NESCAC Rookie of the Year selection and the first of his two All-America seasons, Marcucci considered transferring to a higher-profile school. “There were a lot of people in my corner telling me I should transfer to a Division I program and think about going pro.”
He was still considering when, in the spring of 2020, the dark days of COVID-19 hit. Marcucci’s senior season, which should have been a capper to his glittering college career, was cancelled. But in the strangest of twists, it actually helped him develop his game, get seen, and identify a light twinkling on the horizon – a dim beacon to a pro future.
“I was able to train with a bunch of pros,” Marcucci said of those lockdown days, when he returned to his roots in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was invited to a local high-intensity training unit that was a who’s-who of serious shot-stoppers. John McCarthy of the Philadelphia Union, Tomas Romero of NYCFC, Matt Freese (then of the Union and recently a Gold Cup hero for the USMNT), Pablo Cisniegas (then of LAFC and now with San Diego FC), Joe Bendick (Chicago Fire) and Kyle Morton (of Louisville City in the USL Championship) were just a few of the names in the pod. “I was training with these amazing goalkeepers three times a week – and stuff just kind of fell into place.”
“Andre Blake even showed up a few times,” said Marcucci, still with a breathless quality, thinking back to when the Philadelphia Union star – three times MLS Goalkeeper of the Year – strapped on his gloves.
Marcucci’s confidence grew. Suddenly, the pro game didn’t seem like a pipe-dream for this goalkeeper from a college whose best athletes have, historically, been sailors. He was holding his own with some of the best. He was learning. “A lot of field players will tell you it’s the pace of the pro game that’s the big difference,” he said. “And for me, as a goalkeeper, it was the pace of the shots. How hard people were hitting their shots was definitely an impact.
“But I got used to it in those three months, training with those guys,” added Marcucci, who helped lay the groundwork for a Conn College team that returned to play and won a first NCAA title for the school in 2021. “I got my eyesight dialed in and I realized this is what I need to expect. It was pretty easy for me after that.”
“He’s the best goalkeeper I’ve ever seen,” said Blaise Santangelo,the long-time coach who’s led recently crowned USASA National Amateur Champions West Chester United SC for decades – and coached Marcucci in the summer leagues when he was away from campus. “He’s got it all and I’m not surprised he’s taken the road he has.”
That road led Marcucci to the top of the American game. He’s still a back-up in league play, sure, and learning his trade, but he’s firmly entrenched in the three-man goalkeeper team at the Red Bulls, along with No1 Carlos Coronel and talented teenager Aidan Stokes.
After getting his diploma at Conn, Marcucci announced for the MLS SuperDraft and was selected 67th out of an overall 72. It’s worth noting that he’s not the first pro to come off the Conn College campus, on the banks of the Thames River. Former U.S. Men’s National Team player Jim Gabarra had four seasons as a Camel between 1978 and 1981 and went on to success in the indoor arenas in the days before MLS’ launch in 1996.
When Marcucci – now a teammate to world stars Emil Forsberg and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting – arrived in the New York Red Bulls locker room, he was every inch the outsider. It was a long way from the adulation of college, where his .50-per-game goals against average made him a huge star in a small pond. One of the first players to introduce himself to Marcucci was Ryan Meara – and anyone who knows the long-time RBNY back-up keeper will not be surprised to hear it.
“He’s just one of the best people ever,” Marcucci said of Meara, the veteran goalkeeper, who, in 2017, guided the Red Bulls to the Open Cup Final and was a legend of our tournament through his 12 seasons in New York. “When I was playing in the second team, he would always come by to see how I did.
“He looked out for me,” Marcucci admitted of Meara, who retired in January of 2025 at the age of 34 – and whose place Marcucci has taken as a reliable go-to guy in Open Cup and Leagues Cup play. “He’s been texting me through all the Open Cup games and it’s unbelievable to see how happy he is for me.”
Marcucci, it must be said, has been getting lots of texts. After seasons of grinding in the Red Bulls second team, and out on loan in faraway Finland for a spell last year, his first consistent minutes of first-team play have come – as they so often do for young 'keepers – in the U.S. Open Cup.
“It’s just awesome to be out there,” he said, thinking back to his first start: A 4-1 road win over Division II powers the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in this year’s Round of 32. “People always tell you, when you’re not getting minutes, that you’re still contributing to the team – but it just doesn’t feel like it.”
The next test for Marcucci was a thriller at home against FC Dallas in the Round of 16. “You give up a goal and it becomes a rollercoaster of emotions,” he said of a wild game that finished tangled 2-2 after 90 minutes of regular time and 30 more in OT. “I was never worried. I have so much faith in the team in front of me.”
When it came time for the penalty shootout, however, it was just young Marcucci and the shooter in soccer’s version of the Old West gunfight. There’s nowhere to hide and no one to lean on. And the first pistolero Marcucci faced was one Lucho Acosta, 2023 league MVP and MLS mega-star.
Trying to pull off a delicate Panenka, Acosta’s effort kept rising until it bounced off the crossbar. Marcucci, who’d committed to his dive, popped up to his feet and – in the heat of the moment – shouted something in the general direction of the veteran All-Star. “It was nothing, just something that happens in a game,” Marcucci said. “It was a cheeky thing to try and it didn’t work out.”
The shootout is a rare opportunity for the goalkeeper to become the overt hero – to wheel off in celebration instead of being the last to the party. And when Dallas’ Pedrinho stepped up, needing to score, Marcucci felt the moment in all its fullness. He dove left, made the save and that was that – the Red Bulls were on to the Quarterfinals.
The young goalkeeper’s celebrations with the home fans in the South Ward, members of his family among them, spoke to the magic of a moment. “It’s a moment like you dream about,” Marcucci said after his Man of the Match performance.
“A magician never tells his secrets,” he laughed when asked about his approach to the shootout – and shootouts in general. “But just knowing that strikers are supposed to score is a big, big source of calm for me. It’s not on me to make the save, it’s on them to score.
“It’s been a long road to get here,” added Marcucci, living the unlikely life of a pro and facing a July 9 Open Cup Quarterfinal against high-flying Philadelphia Union (LIVE on Paramount+ and on air at CBS Sports Network). The game is a replay of the originally scheduled match on July 9 was postponed prior to kick-off due to dangerous weather in the Philadelphia area — and it will confirm which of the two combatans joins Austin FC, Minnesota United FC and Nashville SC in the Last Four.
“These opportunities are a blessing and something really I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Being a part of this, hearing the fans celebrating, being in the middle of it – in a win-or-go-home situation – it’s unreal.”
Fontela is editor-in-chief of ussoccer.com/us-open-cup. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.