2018 International Duty

[Gotham Gator]

ASA's been starting to look a little more at keeper analytics lately. There's still a lot of work to be done on cross claiming and other parts of a keeper's job, but based on shotstopping and distribution the top USMNT-eligible MLS keepers fall into three pretty distinct tiers:

1. Frei/Melia/Hamid
2. Robles
3. Rimando/Howard/Guzan/Johnson/Bono/Blake

I think the argument for calling up Johnson and Bono out of this group is that Hamid's still settling into his club situation, Blake doesn't play in a short passing system like Berhalter prefers, and the others are too old for the 2022 World Cup. So Johnson's not a bad choice, just kind of a take-your-pick backup deal.

Where did Steffen fall on the list?

 

[dummyrun]

Where did Steffen fall on the list?

Not particularly close to the top three tiers. You can see his shotstopping stats here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1073642516568858625

And Jeff Rueter wrote up some of the distribution data in a new Athletic article:

https://theathletic.com/732915/2018...e-back-bobby-shuttleworth-goalkeeper-passing/

 

[Shwafta]

Not particularly close to the top three tiers. You can see his shotstopping stats here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1073642516568858625

And Jeff Rueter wrote up some of the distribution data in a new Athletic article:

https://theathletic.com/732915/2018...e-back-bobby-shuttleworth-goalkeeper-passing/

what I learned from this post is that holy hell Nick Rimando must have gotten bored plenty of times during his career, and Steffen's been incredibly busy. lol