If you’re new to the Stack (and a whole lot of you are, welcome!) you may have missed the first part of the goalkeeper reports from April. As I noted then, I have not written these as individual scouting reports, but took a more holistic approach. Substack has been a bit weird with longer emails, so you may need to check the site to get the whole posts. All data cited comes from the game, Opta, or FBRef and all data visualizations are from SorareData. Check out the first:
The table has shifted a bit since the first half was written, so a few of the clubs I covered early have fallen down the table and been replaced. We’re running the final seven clubs in the East in their current standings starting with 6th placed Columbus and wrapping with current basement dwellers D.C. United.
It’s a fitting start to open this by discussing Eloy Room, Columbus’ starting goalkeeper last season. He had made 29 starts in his first two years with the club but only managed eight clean sheets; last year he made 30 MLS starts, kept seven clean sheets and struggled as the club fell from grace, failing not only to retain the MLS Cup but ending the year in the bottom half of the standings over all.