yeah nice that you mentioned Myers but he is not a MLS GK. He was a product of always being on good teams but was never a game changer. Great kid but college is about as far as he will go.
I've always felt Nolly gets kind of the Meola treatment in MLS. People take him for granted and assume he only is successful because of Indiana's D, but all he does is show up, do his job, and keep posting wins. He has to at least get some of the credit for organizing this defense, and if I had to pick who I felt would be able to mentally handle the step up to the next level, the smart money would be on Nolly.
Wasn't the best tourney for any of the goalkeepers. You have to think that underperforming on national tv could really hurt their chances - especially since they underperformed in the exact way that people had been criticizing them for. Take Noah Palmer. Clearly he has the physical tools, but mental lapses have always been his problem. So he manages to get himself caught in no-mans land early in the game (a pro forward would have chipped him for the goal) and then inexcusably gets beat to the ball in overtime. Jay Nolly played solidly, but a keeper who lacks physical prowess and reactions must be fundamentally sound - and his kicks were absolutely atrocious. Trowbridge needed to be amazing and he wasn't. Ball-watching in the first minute cost his team dearly. Kennedy performed the best, I thought. He showed good presence and agility in the box and distributed pretty well. However, it has to be disconcerting to scouts to see him being taken out for the game-deciding PK's. Maybe its unfair to criticize him for that, since it wasn't his decision - but it just doesn't look good at all.
Two stops in the PK's will be impossible to ignore. Nolly's stock has skyrocketed after that (in my homer opinion). A decent combine might get him into a decent draft position. I agree completely on the decision to take him out. Despite the fact that it "payed off" (we'll never know how he would have done), I never agree with brining in the PK specialist. And as for Nolly's kicks, yes I'm a homer, but I'm giving him a pass. He's dropped plenty of 70 yard bombs in his career, and makes pretty decent decision on how to distribute. I would say it's more important to get the ball to the right guy rather than how far you can belt it. If MLS scouts pull out the 2003 championship game tape, it will help Nolly as well. Career high 10 saves, in the biggest game of his life, in the snow. If that game had been this year, there would be a lot more talk.
Taco....like you I am an IU fan...big time, but you cant say that Nolly was stable and solid on friday night....and though he did stop 2 Pks a lot of what you look for in a Gk has to do with reading the game running the team positioning and athleticism....in some arenas, shot stopping comes low on the list.......worst of all, you are crazy to think that these guys will say "oh I saw him have a good game last year, so wel take him" Same goes with recruiting. ...its about what you have done now...and two great Hoosier examples are Ryan Mack or even Damon bailey. Its how you finish, not how you start, that matters...
Like I said, if they look at the 2003 game. It might have an impact, but like I said, if it was this year, then it would have a much bigger impact. I didn't see the semifinal at all (stupid wedding, or I would have been there), but I'll agree that giving up two goals and allowing the equalizer with less than 10 minutes to go doesn't give a lot of confidence. But what's the last image of his college career? Winning a title by stopping a PK. Imagine if he had a great career, but failed to save a single shot in the PK round. His stock would have fallen. I'm not saying that stopping two penalty kicks makes him the top GK prospect. As a matter of fact, if you said it just now puts him into the discussion of even being drafted, I would disagree but that's not out ot the question. If it comes down to him and another keeper, an MLS exec in the war room will have that last little exclamation point to help Nolly's case. As for team positioning, it's hard to say how much of that is coaching, how much is the instinct of the defenders, and how much is the keeper. I will say this, the walls IU has set this year are pretty good, and who directs that? The keeper.