who should be named Best Keeper? Guzan and Hamid both are tied on shutouts. Rimando is retiring. Could this be a final attempt to give him the award? What about guys like Turner or Clark who def helped their clubs stay alive this season?
No you arent. I watches probably 10 Minnesota games this year and he seemed to make multiple big saves in every game.
Clark has been exceptional all year. He should really be on the shortlist for usmnt keepers, even though he's on the older side. Pretty good with his feet, generally good positioning, fantastic reactions. His only knock is that his aerial game is sometimes lacking. Otherwise, a stellar season for him.
"Clark has been exceptional all year. He should really be on the shortlist for usmnt keepers, even though he's on the older side. Pretty good with his feet, generally good positioning, fantastic reactions. His only knock is that his aerial game is sometimes lacking. Otherwise, a stellar season for him." NZ keeper
I'm about the duck out for the weekend so responses will be delayed, but I posted this on how many goals each goalkeeper saved through the season: https://www.everybodysoccer.com/eve...to/2019/10/11/2019-mls-goalkeeper-of-the-year
When guys go from last to near first Bingham or go from first to near last Rimando it raises huge red flags about the validity of the numbers. That said most of the numbers seem to align fairly well with my subjective feelings. Especially the feeling that our National team keepers have all performed at a mediocre level for MLS. Guzan in particular has never performed particularly well when I've seen him. He seems like what his numbers say - he's not going to hurt you, but he's not going to win you any games either. To me the guy we should be grooming is Turner. He's more like our top keepers of a decade ago. Great athlete played a lot of sports decided to focus on soccer pretty late. Top 5 using your replacement average as compared to national team callups: Keeper20182019TotalMelia6.732.79.43Bush5.911.997.9Miller4.922.837.75Turner3.216.8210.03Clark0.078.458.52Rimando7.05-1.915.14Miller4.922.837.75Guzan1.330.591.92Howard0.383.133.51Johnson-0.743.442.7Gonzalez-1.76-1.29-3.05Steffen-2.21-1.16-3.37 Steffan is pretty baffling. I recall some site claiming some sort of great goals saved per goals allowed percentage. However, the numbers I looked at didn't seem to support the claim. These numbers paint a much more negative picture than that.
Then there Optima which has Hamid as the top keeper. Meanwhile here is the top 5 from Audi as compared to the Nats pool: KeeperAudiSteve Clark32Matt Turner35Maxime Crepeau20David Bingham30Bill Hamid52Sean Johnson104Tim Howard224Tyler Miller139Brad Guzan185Nick Rimando182Zack Steffen120
I'm always confused how to read such stats. I figure Clark and Turner probably didn't play enough to get high consideration for the award.
Well, I'm not sure what GSAR is, but the list confirms my opinion that Steve Clark has been the best keeper in the league.
He's been absolutely incredible for the Timbers this year. He didn't start the season as their number one, but through trial and error--on the coach and Attinella's (the former number one) part-- he won the spot, and it's because the dude is clutch at f*ck. He's always on his best game, every game. He misses a few things (as I posted earlier--his aerial command in the box is sometimes suspect) but his distribution with hands and feet, timing, understanding of attacking outlets and ridiculously good reaction saves and general shot-stopping ability are tops. For USMNT reference, he's 33, which puts him solidly in the prime goalkeeper age-range. Overall, way better than any version of Brad Guzan I've ever seen, who's been no slouch.
Still think he end up behind Hamid this year. Yes, Clark has a better GAA and save percentage. However, he also had a consistently better defense in front of him. Clark's highest SOG against in a single game was 8 in a game against Seattle. Hamid faced at least 8 SOG in 7 games this year. He faced double digit SOG in 3 games this year and went 0-1-2 in those games. In those 3 games he has 29 saves. For reference Tyton had 32 in 15 games and Eloy Room had 33 in 12. I honestly think that in most other years Clark would be a lock. However, from everything I've watched this year I think Hamid has just flat out been a better keeper than anyone else in the league.
Yeah, I'd give it to Hamid as well. Tied with shutouts for the season (14) and conceded just 37 goals and 1.12 GAA.
There's some irony in that first paragraph, ha, but it's important to remember that every gk has a different task given to them from their defenses. Some defenses require their gks to handle more crosses, pass backs, etc. So with Steffen, the requirements of his job have vastly shifted with the club change. Man City bought him for the talent he had, not necessarily the product of work with Columbus (although there's obviously crossover). That, combined with the small sample size, an injury I believe he picked up on the way out, and a negative run in his last month in MLS, gave him a surprising rating. Anyone who watched him give up 15 goals in his last 7 starts would have to rate them poorly, especially considering them in a vacuum like statistics will do. I'm confident had Steffen stuck around, his goals saved would have evened out. Feel free to click the link : )
Also I can't help but point out that shutouts and goals against average are team statistics. Goalkeepers are just one piece of the puzzle with those stats. Field players control the ball (on offense and defense) much more often than a goalkeeper does and have a higher influence on goal creation for the opposing team.
I also like this analysis: https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/keeper-xg-2019 Clark, Vega, and Bingham are the top 3 there (if you discount Turner for playing less than half the possible minutes).
MLS narrowed it to Hamid, Johnson, and Mannone. Finalist info: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/10/08/mls-2019-year-end-awards-finalists-revealed