In Defense of the Defense of Troy Perkins

Troy Perkins should be the starting keeper for DC United.

I'm not saying that Perkins starts every match from now until season's end, or that Rimando shouldn't be able to compete for the job. Yet I will say that I believe that over the past eight games, Troy Perkins has played capably and dutifully, and that his performance makes him an above average keeper in today's Major League Soccer.

The job of a keeper, first and foremost, is to keep the ball out of the net. Organization of the defensive line helps that job, and strong distribution is a bonus. But neither matter a whit compared to keeping the ball out. In eight games, Troy has allowed eight goals. Those goals are enumerated below:

1. Youri Djorkaeff's free kick (April 2, 2006)
2. Edson Buddle's hitting the muffed save (April 2, 2006)
3. Djorkaeff slotted shot (April 22, 2006)
4. Ronnie O'Brien's shot from distance (April 29, 2006)
5. Kirovski's penalty (May 7, 2006)
6. Hernandez from Cooke (May 7, 2006)
7. Victorine's penalty (May 13, 2006)
8. Ngwenya's counter (May 20, 2006)

Of those eight goals, Troy should be excused for, if nothing else, the two penalities and Djorkaeff's free kick. That's five goals where Troy may have made a mistake to enable a goal, either through decision making, reflexes, or positioning.

In MLS now there are damn few top quality keepers who will only allow in the "impossible to stop" goals. The best you can reasonably hope for is a competent keeper that gets the job done. Troy has done that this year. You may be able to directly fault him for one or two goals, but aside from Buddle's goal I see few instances where one can say that all, or even most of the blame, is Perkins. Yes, he has merited some censure for many of those goals, but so did the defense and midfield for allowing breakaway counter attacks. In eight games, only once has Perkins given the other team a goal. In that same time frame, I believe DC's opponents have given them many more goals (Eskandarian's second against New York, when Tony fell down, comes to mind. You can make an argument for Gomez's goal against Columbus as well. And that's with me thinking for only a few seconds.)

Folks, DC has the best GAA in the East, and that's with some defensive lapses noted here and in numerable other places. So don't tell me that Perkins hasn't done his share of the work, or that the defense is somehow making him look better than he is. (The holding midfielders I might believe, but not the back line). Perkins has carried his share, or more, of the load. He deserves the job. If he starts to falter, then Rimando is there. But at this point, Perkins is the man, and rightfully so.