We're now seven games into Real Salt Lake's 2013 campaign and there hasn't been a shortage of things to talk about. Road trips, questionable PK's, Saborio's form, Morales and Wingert and Borchers coming back from injury, the new-look midfield, poor playing surfaces, and oh-my-goodness-Olmes-that-was-amazing have all been worthy topics of discussion. But one topic is perhaps getting lost in the shuffle, and I want to bring it to the forefront: Nick Rimando - who won two Governor's State of Sport Awards on Tuesday - is having an absolutely fantastic start to the year.
In six matches played (Josh Saunders played on March 23 at FC Dallas while Rimando was on international duty), Rimando has only allowed five goals, giving him a goals-against average (GAA) of 0.83. This is a good number by anyone's standard, but honestly I've never liked GAA as a measurement of the quality of a goalkeeper because the defense has a lot to do with GAA. For example, Carlo Cudicini of the Galaxy has a slightly better GAA than Rimando because he has an outstanding defense in front of him - Cudicini has faced less than half as many shots as Rimando has.
A better way to examine the quality of your goalkeeper is to look at save percentage - the number of saves made divided by the number of shots on goal. By the time a shot is on its way to goal the defense is out of the equation and it's goalkeeper vs. ball. Here's where Rimando really shines: His save percentage of 82 percent puts him at No. 1 in MLS among all goalkeepers who have played at least three games. What this tells us is Rimando is having a remarkable year when it comes to stopping shots – 82 percent is by far his best save percentage ever and a whopping 14 percent better than his career average.
So what does this mean on the field? Well, it means that when one of RSL's opponents gets a shot on frame, Nicky is more likely to save it than any other goalkeeper. The issue for RSL at the moment is slowing down the total number of shots on goal; only Chivas USA have surrendered more shots on goal than Salt Lake. I think the reasons for this boil down to two things: First, injuries on the back line and a high amount of lineup turnover related to that, and second, the unbalanced schedule that has seen RSL play five of seven on the road. On the road, opponents are more likely to pin their ears back and attack with abandon, knowing that three points at home is almost a must if you plan to keep up in this league.
I expect the number of shots on goal RSL is facing to decrease as defenders get healthy and the home/away schedule starts to get balanced out over the next two months. This, combined with Nick Rimando's torrid shot-stopping form this season, means we have good reason to believe RSL will be putting up a lot of clean sheets in the near future.
A former RSL beat reporter for multiple outlets, Jeremy Horton is a regular contributor to RealSaltLake.com and helps cover the team for ESPN 700 AM.
