Actually, I don't think he was even listed before. Though, hopefully, this is a page set up for someone - anyone - to take the backup keeper slot for the playoffs. "This guy SUCKS!!!"
Poor Guy After the game, I kept thinking of the first time Joe Borowski was called up to the Cubs. It was a couple years ago, and here's this career minor league-er, already thirty, called up when the Cubs are out of it to start a game and see what he had. As I remember, he lasted about a third of an inning. It was horrific. I hope Spiteri gets another chance somewhere some day. There had to have been some reason we brought him on. In the meantime, a toast: to Zach's health.
Re: Re: Poor Guy Actually I remember reading about this guy. University of Portland backstop. There's the first connection to the Fire--Sarachan and Clive Charles, if memory serves, were friends. Sarachan kept close tabs on their program. We got Jaqua from Univ of Portland, and someone else whose name escapes me (Pause). Portland Timbers picked Spiteri up in the A-League draft, I think with their first pick. They had 3 guys from the draft, but I think they dropped the other two. I didn't check on their record after that, so I have no idea how he did, but he started in Portland all season. My feeling is that given the fact he has A-League experience, he must just have had a bad night. A REALLY bad night. But hey, Pat Onstad came back from punching the ball into his own net, right? (Though he'll never live it down.)
Spiteri I kind of feel sorry for the guy. The defense he had in front of him wasn't very stellar (they gave up 29 shots and 16 shots on goal). That notwithstanding, he did get a mention from Tino in TCS: "Curtis Spiteri: It was like watching a bear maul a bunny, “Swingers” fans…you felt awful, but you just couldn’t look away. The final stats: 45 minutes. 10 shots. 6 goals. The other 4 shots must have hit him. On a related note, Dave Sarachan says he will wait until gameday to announce his starting goalkeeper for game one of the playoffs. THE NUMBER: 12 – that would be his goals against average. Or the number of people in the world who believe that Sarachan would say he’s not sure which GK he’s going with. Now if I had written that Grady Little said that… Most shocking thing about Spiteri … there was actually someone who wanted the regular season to end more than the Dallas Burn." http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/tcs1030.html
Re: Re: Re: Poor Guy Portland went 3-7 with him in the net and a 1.69 GAA, before replacing him with San Jose's backup, Josh Saunders, when Spiteri went to Germany to try out for a team there. His work at college was where he excelled, going 13-6-1 and becoming an All-American.
NO! Not only is he Canadian, but he was worse than even Spiteri. At least Spiteri had the sense to get out of the way of oncoming shots. Sutton actually helped them cross the line.