In fairness, it isn't Howard's job to step aside and let the younger guys take his spot. It's the responsibility of the younger guys to step up and take his spot. That hasn't happened yet, and Howard is probably still our best keeper (or at least top 2-3), even despite his age.
I concur. But most managers keep to their trusted players. Perhaps if Guzan had been more of a challenge, we'd have seen the likes of Horvath or Hamid making more appearances for the NT. Howard is still serviceable but he's not as good as he was 08-14. And I'm hesitant to rely so much on him but as we are kinda forced to.
I have high hopes for Horvath and Gonzalez. Horvath seems to be progressing at a high level though and playing for a top Belgian team in Champions League is indicative of his ability. At least in my opinion.
Come on. And it's not like this is rare; it's a fairly well-known problem. An international keeper shouldn't have this happen.
Yeah. I understand why people like him, and he may as well be the most talented goalkeeper in the pool, but is that really what we're looking for? Our keeper should be the one that lets the ball go in our net the least, and I don't think that is, or will be, Bill Hamid. But to each is own, I guess.
That is complete cherry picking, you are better than that. For the hundred millionth time, if it happens so often, show me some statistical evidence. I always ask for this, and then those who are addicted to this narrative can never come up with an answer.
Don't try to make me into the one with the opinion thats crazy. You advocate for your club team's GK to play for the NT. Nearly every season, Hamid is either MLS's best keeper statistically or very close to the best, yet some people want to pick out a small part of his game that is derived from a faulty narrative that has yet to even been proven as true for why he isn't good. That would be like saying Bradley is too dumb to play CM for the NT without any actual evidence, but just repeating it and repeating it.
How about the fact that this is a discussion that was happening before this happened? That, and now I'm going to have to spend my time looking for Bill Hamid mistakes. 0:45: 1:45: 3:15: https://youtu.be/o6lgvmJXIp8?t=113 https://youtu.be/Tr3wbqODCis?t=94 These are all mental mistakes, and bad ones. EDIT: Time got deleted in a bunch of these, but they're in there.
Look, I don't blame you, this is a typical talking point out there, but this is yet another example of wanting to make this claim, and cherry picking to do so. If there's something to this claim, why has there been no actual statistical evidence of Hamid vs. other MLS starting keepers in this part of the game?
I think it'll probably be Guzan, he'll be younger in Qatar than Howard is going to be in Russia so age certainly isn't a killer. It'll all depend on the manager though, and 4 years is a long time to hold on to a starting spot.
Lol, Jesus dude, we literally just had this conversation a month ago. First off , I'll repeat again for the third time I've been openly critical of Bingham this year, who has turned it around but was unusually shaky earlier in the year. Second, more importantly, this is literally the third time someone has smacked bill hamid disaster pieces that cannot be hid with a blanket of statistics. His upside is calamity James at best. It has been proven true, and you can shout at the top of your lungs that it's false, but tape don't lie son. Never had, never will. The only narrative anyone has here is you, it's just like your agudelo is the best US striker thing that went on for at least two years. This is no different.
How are you making any halfway decent argument by cherry-picking highlights? It would be one thing if that was accompanied by stats that prove the highlights have some value, but if you are just going to take a bunch of highlights from 200 or so games, and claim something, I'm not sure there's a discussion to be had. There's no disputing bad plays, everyone makes them, but would it disprove the point if just as many (and clearly more) good highlights were posted? I don't think so because I think the point is to find players who's overall body of work stacks up favorably to their competitors.
thats the thing though, the video, again, the video. Its bad tape. Theres no hiding it. Bingham has bad tape, but his bad tape is flailing at butterflies on corners and crosses rather than shot stopping. Hamid has that AND shot stopping blunders that are firmly established and well known to garner the reputation he has built. Gonzalez doesn't really have any bad tape, you don't hear about him making errors. Hamid also has the made of glass reputation you cant hide with statistics, that is his reputation. When people bring up hamid in the US soccer community, they think of injuries and soft goals. that's a fact. Reputations aren't earned on one or two instances. This is not Juergen trying to character assassinate a player, hes done it himself. Its not character assassination when you shoot yourself in the foot. I mean its like the Agudelo situation, don't you find it odd you are the only one so firmly in this guy's corner? why are there so many people illustrating with solid video evidence that they arent sold on this guy? might the rest of the BS community be on to something here?? Its a good lesson to be learned
I'm afraid for Hamid that he is too injury prone to ever be considered a number one pick. However, he may be a good option to rely on for the bench if he's healthy and in form and no one has surpassed him. Unfortunately, we are having a real goalkeeper crisis, which has turned into, strangely, our weakest position on the field. That said, we may just have to bypass the Hamid generation and start looking at hopefully Ethan Horvath and Jesse Gonzalez, maybe Cody Cropper and Zack Steffens, as the future of our program.
I think the real problem here is that there's no such thing as a good stat for goalies. Save percentage is good, but really, it's not like it really conveys that much. Its marginally better for evaluating shot stopping than passing percentage is for evaluating midfielders. The biggest problem is that it's impossible to compare goalies in different leagues statistically, and on top of that, I don't think Hamids mental side of the game is growing very much when he's playing for a crappy DC side. Hell, I'm not arguing for another MLS guy here, I just think when it comes to everything about a keeper- shot stopping, organization, controlling the box, positioning, and distribution- I really don't believe Bill Hamid is, or will be, our best keeper.
This is maybe Hamid's worst year in MLS but I don't think he's playing healthy. If you just watch how he moves, even on opening day, it looks like there's some nagging injury bothering him. He's not as quick or decisive, his hands have been awful this year (even with the Orlando blunder aside), he's gotten lost in crowds on crosses a million times. It's complete conjecture about the injury but he's definitely a different goalkeeper than we've seen in the past. While I think he is playing a little below his own quality, he turns 27 in November. So there's not really any more "potential" out there for him. I expect 2018 to be a better year for him but it's extremely rare that someone goes from bottom of MLS to USMNT contention.
isn't it said that keepers get better with age or at least more refined? It's not unlikely that Hamid might still improve his game going forward.
I think "crisis" is overstating the issue greatly. Guzan and Howard are going to be with this team thru the 2018 World Cup. Arena will need to name that squad less than a year from now. Then we just need one guy to step up. I think the issue is more like we've taken our really high level of goalkeeping since the mid 90's for granted & assumed that it would always be that way. The keepers we have right now in their primes aren't Howard/Keller/Friedel, but they're more than capable of getting the job done. Maybe the strength of our squad for the next 4 years will be in another year like CB (where we have a plethora of really intruiging prospects) or with some playmakers like Pulisic. If we had an injury crisis in the run-up to the World Cup and ended up taking Hamid/Horvath/Bingham.............................it still wouldn't be a problem position for us. I have faith that the reason we're knocked out of the tournament will be because of a guy like Hamid. Nations go thru this. One cycle they'll have a great keeper, and the next they'll just have an average keeper.
Does Guzan deserve a spot in next year's roster? He has filled in and played his part in qualifying but wouldn't the likes of a Horvath for sure warrant selection at no.2 (provided his season performance is good enough). I can understand why JK brought Rimando in 2014. He was reliable through the previous qualifying. But for 2018 we will have Howard (though I'd want Horvath/Hamid/Gonzalez) to battle him for the start. I like Guzan but his recent performances of the past 2 years have given birth to so much worry.
There are ways to measure play for GK's. SV% is a big one, and then using websites like WhoScored, Squawka, and now also this Audi MLS index. Its not as simple as goals for a striker, but its also not easy to judge defenders or midfielders. Usually though, the players who score the best in these types of categories for their position will be the best players. I'm not about shutting down other's opinions. You have your opinion, thats that, I just hear these two talking points about Hamid thrown out there (too many mistakes, injuries), and I'm not sure there's much to statistically back up either being true. I've actually thoroughly debunked the injuries one that gets regurgitated. Now there's this errors one. I don't have the time to watch every highlight from every keeper and count their errors. If someone is so sure of that claim though, they should take up proving it. Right now, all it is is conjecture.
Yeah for me it's always a bit of a hard task to judge a goalkeeper accurately. Are they measured by total number of saves or cleansheets or goals against average...
Bottom of MLS? Where do you get this from? No offense, but thats seems like a completely laughable claim. Would be like saying Bradley is one of MLS's worst CM's this season based off nothing. SV%, WhoScored, Audi MLS Index all have him extremely high. Squawks seems to have gotten rid of their MLS coverage, but he usually is one of the top in that. Even your own ASA has him fifth in expected goals saved. And we know he plays behind possibly the worst defense in the league, so he's certainly not helped out like some of these others are.
I mentioned save percentage, but again, its not that great. Most people find passing percentage useless, and the only difference between passing percentage and save percentage is a goalie can't choose the difficulty of the shot that comes at him. Still, it relies completely on how the defense decides to set up, the league they're in, etc.
Thing is that we are a nation that has always depended on our keeper. If we have an average keeper, we are likely to get slaughtered.