Congratulations to Nick Rimando on the callup for the USA National team! I started this thread because I wanted to point out that Nick Rimando is tied with Scott Garlick & Mark Simpson as the DC United all-time shutout leader (with 9). Nick Rimando has accomplished this in 1 whole season (2002) plus 4 games this year. His next shutout for DC United will place as the sole leader in shutouts.
This is also surprising because of how bad our season was last year. I dont know if it can get worse, so his record can only get better.
But wait. I thought he sucked really really badly? At least that's what I gathered from these boards. Based on his performances he should've been benched, fired, cut, fined, lynched, and stoned by now it seems from some comments on these boards. Thanks to Jose for pointing out stuff like this, and keeping a bit of reality on the situations. Sure Rimando sucked against Kansas City (have we beaten them since we started calling them Kansas? Maybe it's time to stop..) in the first game but his GAA is still around 0.93 I believe even with that game included. That comes to 3rd place among MLS goalies, with Nicky averaging giving up a goal once every 97 minutes. If you throw out that game, he's given up 3 goals this year, or about one every 163 minutes. And none of that even deals with Preki's somewhat fluky goal last weekend off an Ivanov deflection. Not too bad in my opinion considering 1 starting defender is out for the year, another was out for a big part of the season so far, and still another projected starter is finally making his debut for the team.
Nick is good but he still needs seasoning... the last ball that went through his legs (last game) (minor mistake) are the type of things he needs to improve and avoid. Nick will get a chance to learn from the world's best keeper when DCU plays Blackburn in July. Coach Hudson should make Nick take notes on (Blackburn's) Brad Friedel's style and ability... it is something Rimando needs to learn! IntheNet
Somehow, that is the most valid commentary of the entire year. Not because of the content, but the context and the author. Sit back and think for about 10 seconds while reading the bold-face type above these two paragraphs. You will understand.
I don't get it. The thing I felt the worst about last year was the wasted efforts of Nick Rimando. Throughout the course of that awful season. Rimando played brilliantly in goal and did everything possible to keep the team in games. It was heartbreaking at times. j
Nicky will probably learn very little from Brad because our offense is hardly likely to challenge him.
Re: Re: Nick Rimando Ya, but the problem really has been the lack of scoring. 40 GAA last year wasn't too bad. Only 3 teams let in less goals. ONly scoring 31 goals in 28 games, that was the problem.
How tall is Friedel? About 6'4"? He also has a wingspan like an albatross. All the notes in the world won't help Nick make up for that. On the other hand, Nick seems to me to have far faster reflexes and far more mobility that Friedel. Incidentally, as to Nick's statistics, the DC United web site lists him as 5'10" and 201 pounds. US Soccer, on the roster of the team called up for Wales, lists him as 5'11" and 181 pounds. DCU also lists Convey as 5'9 and US Soccer at 5'8.
Unless our strategy is to get close and try to shoot it off the legs of Blackburn defenders. Worked last time.
One thing Rimando can't learn from Brad is how to be bigger. Freidel's massive wing span is probably 30% larger than Rimando's and he's more than half a foot taller. What's remarkable about Rimando is that he does so well without having the height and reach that most top goal tenders have. While Nick is due some credit for the shut outs year, the credit is shared with the defenders who have limited the break aways and let downs (the only one I can think of is Namoff letting a KC player get by him; I suppose another was a fluke penalty which Rimando caused), and also the lousy offense of teams like Chicago and Colorado.
Nick is our version of Fabien Barthez. He makes some great saves due to his athletic ability, but then he lets in some goals that my little sister could have stopped. One of 2 things will happen to him, he will either improve his in game mentality and move into the upper level of US keepers, or injuries will cause him to lose some of his athletic ability and turn him into an average MLS keeper.
I think Nick has far more than athletic ability, although he certainly has a lot of that. His positioning and anticipation are very good in my book. Far better than Barthez, or Meola for that matter, who also gets by on athletic ability. Any keeper is going to blunder now and then just as any player is going to blunder. The problem for keepers is that the blunder is so public and so costly. Nick has been a consistently fine keeper for at least the two plus years I've seen him play, two years ago with Miami, last year and so far this year here. If he had Friedel's height he'd have Friedel's job.
In terms of the nats, the analogy is that he is the Jason Kreis or Steve Ralston of goalies. No matter how he does in MLS, or how many times he is called into camp, he has no future w/ the USMNT. He is behind Friedel, Keller, Howard, Brown, Thornton and possibly a couple more. He was phenom for DC last year, but this year has given up a few suspect goals already. On a team that struggles to score even one, that is hurting the team. He's living off past glory at this point, IMHO. Of course, if we scored 2 goals a game it wouldn't matter.