What's w/ Meola

I actually think hes better than last year. Hes come up big SEVERAL times. Maybe he would be better if his defenders did a bit more-- every time they mess up, thats when the goals come.

 

He was amazing versus San Jose, but prior to that in the home opener I thought he looked extremely out of it.

You could also argue he should have stopped at least one of the Fire goals.

 

Hold on a minute. All the sudden attacking Meola? Lets first take a look at each goal...

DC #1: A point blank header is saved by Meola and falls to the feet of Petke 6 yards out with an open net.
DC #2: A header from inside the 6 yard box on a cross to the near post. The player was not marked at all.
SJ: A breakaway after a lost 50/50 ball. It was argued that Tony didn't distribute the ball well and it lead to the turn over, but its the players responsibility to win 50/50 balls and also not give up a breakaway after the fact.
Chi #1: Perez hit a bomb. No one in MLS, and probably the world would have gotten that ball.
Chi #2: Defense lets Williams through with a 20 yard shot. Tony is a little sheilded, steps the wrong way at first, then it rolls by.
Chi #3: A slow roller slide past Tony, completely his fault.
Cbus #1: Cunningham steals the ball from Garcia in the box and passes to McBride at 8 yards out. McBride is allowed to turn and shoot into the side netting from about 7-8 yards out. Can tell me you expect a keeper to save that.
Cbus #2: Tony makes the best play by coming out and sliding at the feet of an onrushing Cunningham. He is outside the box and cant use his hands, and is unlucky that his clearance goes straight to Martino.

In all of those I see one goal that he absolutely should have saved. The second Chicago goal and the SJ goals could have half his fault. I'd hardly say that of the 8 goals we've conceeded that Tony the problem.

 

Hold on a minute. All the sudden attacking Meola? Lets first take a look at each goal...

DC #1: A point blank header is saved by Meola and falls to the feet of Petke 6 yards out with an open net.
DC #2: A header from inside the 6 yard box on a cross to the near post. The player was not marked at all.
SJ: A breakaway after a lost 50/50 ball. It was argued that Tony didn't distribute the ball well and it lead to the turn over, but its the players responsibility to win 50/50 balls and also not give up a breakaway after the fact.
Chi #1: Perez hit a bomb. No one in MLS, and probably the world would have gotten that ball.
Chi #2: Defense lets Williams through with a 20 yard shot. Tony is a little sheilded, steps the wrong way at first, then it rolls by.
Chi #3: A slow roller slide past Tony, completely his fault.
Cbus #1: Cunningham steals the ball from Garcia in the box and passes to McBride at 8 yards out. McBride is allowed to turn and shoot into the side netting from about 7-8 yards out. Can tell me you expect a keeper to save that.
Cbus #2: Tony makes the best play by coming out and sliding at the feet of an onrushing Cunningham. He is outside the box and cant use his hands, and is unlucky that his clearance goes straight to Martino.
Dallas: Long ball down our right side, Conrad (?) tracks with Broome who one touches it inside to Kreis. Kreis ran all the way down the middle of the field, two guys near him but not covering him. He then one times it from near 10 yards. Poor covering, only a spectacular reaction save would have stopped that shot.

In all of those I see one goal that he absolutely should have saved. The second Chicago goal and the SJ goals could have half his fault. I'd hardly say that of the 8 goals we've conceeded that Tony the problem.

Note: I've noticed on other threads outside our forum more and more people are blaming Tony for our high goals allowed average. I'm going to update my view of every goal for a while. Feel free to agree/disagree on any of my takes. Below will be the running total of Tony vs. "the defense". Fun game if you ask me.

Tony 2:7 Defense

 

I agree with Ben on this. If you remember, what was great in 2000 was the play of the defense, midfield, and strikers to win back the ball and produce counters. At times this year it is almost like the team has had mental lapses and opposing attacks come out of nowhere. Our players just need more concentration on their individual responsibilities as well as working better as a collective group. We can't blame Tony for it all, he is going to give up a few of the fluke goals here and there-it happens. He's not perfect, but Meola is not as bad as some people make him out to be. It could be worse folks, we could still have David Winner!!!

 

OK, certainly the defense has been horrible, but check the numbers:

GK ----------SOG SVS GAA Save-Percentage
Pat Onstad ---21 19 0.38 90.5%
Tim Howard ---27 24 0.59 80%
Zach Thornton 18 15 0.69 83.3%
Jon Busch -----24 19 0.80 73.1%
Nick Rimando --24 19 0.93 76%
Kevin Hartman -34 28 1.13 77.8%
Adin Brown ----22 16 1.17 72.7%
D.J. Countess -16 12 1.29 75%
Scott Vallow --16 11 1.61 68.8%
Tony Meola ---33 24 1.75 68.6%

A goalkeepers job description is this: 1) Cancel all collective mistakes of the 10 guys in front of you. 2)Start the offense in the best way you can. The stats above cannot quantify #2, but they can lead to part of the story of #1.

Tony's story: He's a guy that has been faced with more SOG than anyone else in the league, has as many or more saves as anyone, and has the single lowest save percentage and GAA in MLS.

My $.02: If Tony comes up with any one of the 4-5 "questionable" goals, then KC has at least 1 more point. IT might not be "fair", but that is the job description. Yes, it's a team game, so it's a team failure, but we have seen Tony come up with those before and we will again. Unfortunately we must gauge his play by his 2000 standard. His level, although not poor, is not as high right now.

I would say that in reviewing tape it does appear that once or twice TM has been guilty of not being "coiled" or "set" at the time of the shot. It's impossible to cover maximum ground in minimal time if you are not ready to do at time 0. If I noticed, I'm sure Mulqueen is on it.

Bottom line: As difficult as it is to ask your last line to endure shelling of that magnitude, he must. So far Tony's failed criteria #1.

 

Tim Howard ---30 24 0.59 80%

 

I agree, but my only real point is that some people, mostly outside the Wizards fan base, are blaming the fact that we are giving up the most goals squarely on Meola. In fact, I read this yesterday: "KC's defense is playing great, their problem is just with Meola." Which, I hope we can all agree is crap.

Yeah, team game, etc, etc, and I know his job criteria, and I even accept that Meola will be judged against 2000. But right in your stats, the biggest number that jumps out at me is SOG Tony has faced. In the first five games of 2000 our defense gave up 19 SOG (4 goals, 78% Save) in the first five games, 10 of them in the first game vs. Chicago. Thats still mid table on this years save percentage, but we were 4-0-1 at that point. A little better save percentage, yet half the amount of shots on goal.

Point being, I've broken down each goal, unless you disagree with any of my assessments on these goals, it looks to me like 9 goals in 5 games isnt nearly as much Tony's fault as it is the defenses fault.

 

tony is the same keeper he's always been. he makes amazing reflex saves on balls within his reach. but when a ball is hit to the corner, he struggles (presumably because of his height/reach).

 

I don't think you can look at save percentage as the measuring stick of is a GK any good or not. That's probably what the people outside the Wizards are looking at. The back line at times this season has been horrrrrrible. If your defense isn't any good you're GK is gonna face a ton of shots and most of those shots will be quality ones. Ergo, there will be a ton of goals. You can only cancel so many of the defense's mistakes. Has Meola had a couple of whiffs? Sure, but he's also made some outstanding saves. I'll chalk up my vote for the lame defense.

 

I wqould have loved that also, oh well. The defense was definitely to blame, sort of. I'm not sure how you can condemn the defense for losing a header to Moore after :15 of constant intense pressure. Twellman continues to prove that he can consistently find space where none should exist, so just tipping the hat might be best.

That said, Meola clearly leaned early towards the far post on Twellman's shot. You can argue he had too, but there is no doubt he flinched and TT went to the hole, 1-1.

So much was made of Meola's ability to not be the loser in "soccer chicken" in 2000 while he was in his run. (It wasn't all true because sometimes he did guess and guess correctly) This was just an example of why his form is at a lower level.

 

Twellman's goal made the Top 10 plays of the night. It was discribed as a total fake-out of the goalkeeper. From the camera angle shown, it did look like TT switched minds in mid-air.

Someone should call into his radio show Thurs night and ask Tony if he bought the deke or if he was leaning far post. My suggestion would be to call in and tell the screener you want to, "discuss football and have a question for Tony."

One thing very noticable in the NE game was that shots were basicly of two kinds, outside long shots and shots to the near post. That seems to be the pattern in the last two.