Rare is the occurrence that a player can take an unlikely scenario and garner as much confidence from his teammates as when Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando stands on his line while some of the best players in Major League Soccer stand unabated 12 yards away to take a penalty kick.
On Wednesday night, the LA Galaxy added a bit of intrigue to that scenario when Juninho stepped to the spot in stoppage time of a scoreless deadlock. Even with pressure that high, Rimando was unfazed … as were his teammates and coaches.
“I was like, ‘Rimando’s got it’,” RSL midfielder Luke Mulholland said.
Added Tony Beltran, “Always going to save it, always.”
Juninho went to Rimando’s left with a low, driven ball, but the “Wall of the Wasatch” sprung to the post and made the save to preserve his 119th career MLS shutout.
“It’s just a tremendous amount of confidence in him,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said. “I think that the other teams don’t have confidence when they face him, and that’s a big thing. This save wasn’t routine either, it was a fantastic save.”
In an MLS career that is in its 16th season, Rimando has allowed goals on just 42 out of 66 penalty attempts for a 63.6% conversion rate. With Real Salt Lake, he is even better, with 21 out of 36 for 58.3%. By comparison, the best goalkeeper with the best shot-stopping rate among goalkeepers with at least 100 wins is Joe Cannon’s 77.4%.
Over the last three seasons, Rimando has allowed goals on just two of the nine PK attempts against him.
So how does he conjure that magic seemingly every time he faces a penalty?
“Maybe there’s intimidation with the players knowing my track record with the PK’s. Maybe it’s me? I don’t know,” Rimando mused after the match. “There’s some study going on for sure, there’s a feel, there’s last minute decisions, and a lot of them go against me, but it was for me and I’m happy, because I don’t think that we should have lost that game tonight.”
Even his teammates are left dumbfounded at first, but now appreciate the art and the splendor of each PK save.
“You kind of get surprised every time, but it shows how good the goal keeper is and he has such a good spring on him as well as psyching out the penalty taker,” Mulholland said. “That’s the reason why he’s the best goal keeper in the league.”
