Or; Melissa Moore, meet Jon Busch and Kevin Hartman, the Columbus and LA goalies who are likely scratching their heads today because Joe Cannon of the SJ Earthquakes was named MLS goalie of the year today instead of either of them. Cannon was chosen for the award despite being 5th in the league in save percentage, 'save ratio' and saves, plus tied for 2nd in goals against average. Cannon had 17 more saves than Hartman, but if you base a goalie award on saves alone, then Tim Howard of the Metrostars should have gotten the duke. The only category Cannon was heads above everyone else in was wins (13, out of 26 games started, a subpar winning percentage of just .500) and shutouts. He was 4th in losses, tho Busch and Hartman were 1-2 in save percentage, save ratio, although they played 14 and 18 games, respectively. Maybe that was held against them. Busch was 3rd in save average, Hartman 5th, and Cannon nowhere near the top 10. Contrast this to Moore's dominance over Lucks in the regular season: GAA: Moore 1.00 (1st, WUSA), Luckenbill 1.43 (5th) Winning %age: Moore .700 (1st), Luckenbill .667 (2nd) Save %: Moore .782 (2nd), Luckenbill .731 (3rd) Shutouts: Moore 4 (tie, 2nd), Luckenbill 2 (tie, 4th) Saves: Luckenbill 114 (1st); Moore 86 (3rd) What were both leagues thinking, and what should constitute a goalie of the year? This is only posted to compare MLS' choice today with WUSA's. Paul
I think Charge is just upset that MLS didn't pick Melissa Moore as their Keeper of the Year. She obviously deserved it... You use save percentage so passionately as an argument for Busch and Hartman, yet conveniently forget that Mullinix had a better save percentage than Moore (and everyone else) in WUSA in 2002 and was many people's pick for WUSA KOTY (and it is generally concurred that save % is the best single stat for rating keepers). And what on earth is the difference between save percentage and save average???
Get over it, Charge! Melissa Moore is neither the best keeper in de WOOSA, nor the keeper who had the best season. After her performance in the AllStar game, it could be argued that she didn't even belong in that. There were 3 better keepers in that one game alone. What about catches and parries? If Moore is so bloomin' great, how come she had so few of those? Either she didn't control the box, or the defense in front of her was so good there was nothing to control. You make the call.
Goalkeeper of the Year goes to the best goalkeeper, not the one with the best stats. This freakish fixation you've had since Moore didn't win WUSA's award is starting to weird me out. Let it go.
I believe it was Douglas Adams who wrote, "Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so." To borrow his phraseology and apply it to the present case: soccer statistics are meaningless, soccer goalie statistics doubly so. Seriously, any time anyone starts talking about goalie stats (saves; save percentage; and my personal nomination as the most ridiculous stat in the history of sport, the ever-popular "catch-punch") my eyes simultaneously roll and glaze over -- which is no easy feat -- because they're all such complete and utter nonsense. If you want to know who the best keepers are, there's no substitute for simply watching the games. P.S. Joe Cannon deserved the MLS award. He's always had a lot of talent, but his achilles heel has been a tendency to make more mental errors than are commensurate with a truly top-class keeper. However, this year he cut way down on the mental lapses, and put together a great season. Plus the guy had 104 catch-punches! That's 3.71 per game or one every 24.3 minutes!! How can you argue with numbers like that?!?
ah druid your gonna ruin all the fantasy league stuff with the premise stats don't tell the story... trying to reduce the game of soccer to numbers ignores the beauty of the game... there are serious number crunches who crunch certain sports stats as a way to measure success or failure... generally, soccer yields the least favorable ability to predict success or failure... the most reliable measure is the ever popular, TIME of POSSESSION, which is about the most significant STAT in soccer.. and that's more a team concept... I guess we all need to have a Fantasy WUSA league next year... Paul, you are commissHHHH...
Siri Mullinix got hosed. Perhaps I should go start several threads about it. Ya know "explore" it from different angles. What do you guys think?