2023 USC All America Teams

[SierraFD3soccer]

I understand the focus on stats, but I get rather bemused by the ones for keepers as it seems to me like the numbers published are a lot more than what I ever notice in the game.  Happy to hear from CSO & SC for their views, but I don't really care how many shots someone stops, but thinking about how they command their area, co-ordinate with the defence and actually repel dangerous shots, i.e. ones where the keeper is taken out of his comfort zone.  I don't think the stats help in any of those regards.

I mentioned all of that in my post (plus really good defenses make GKs look really good) and it would be lovely if the coaches actually considered it, but I'm guessing almost no one outside of their region who voted on these awards has ever even seen this GK play.  So, given that they are likely relying upon something else, the assumption is that they are relying upon stats and the votes of the coaches in that conference and region.  And the stats don't back up the votes, but maybe there's some of the other intangibles that you mentioned.

That's fine, but I would think the likelihood that the best GKs in the country would be located in two different teams in the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference in consecutive years -- a league that has had no team advance past the first round of the tournament either year -- seems awfully low.

Absolutely.  Interesting as to a good keeper on a team that defends well. A good example right now is the 3rd team AA D1 keeper which my son played with and split time.  They played on a team that took a huge dive as to quality defense over the last year. He wouldn't have made the 20th AA D1 team. However,   he took his last year at UNH and makes the AA team.

Also many really, really good keepers don't have the same stats as they direct their backs and holding midfielders to cut down on the opposition's opportunities so that they don't have to face many chances. Circus saves aren't always an indication as to whether the keeper is good.
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