Galaxy Goalkeeper Steve Cronin Defends His Goalkeeping
Steve Cronin has come in for his fair share of criticism from fans and media alike for some of the perceived soft goals he's given up behind an awful defense so far this season.
I asked him about that earlier this week and this is what he had to say:
"In terms of some of the goals I have given up you've got to look at what happens in front of me before you look at me."Maybe one or two I've given up I could have done more on, but for the majority I think I've done everything I can. Ian Feur and myself review every goal I let in. We talk about it and we talk about my decision-making process and things like that. I don't feel like I'm making a whole lot of mistakes on the goals that go in.
As far as the defense goes every game has been an adjustment. I don't think we've played more than two of three games in a row with the same lineup or the same formation and I think that's where our problems started."
What do you think? Where does the blame lie? The Galaxy have given up 40 goals in 19 games so far this season, by the way.
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Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Bad positioning and bad decisions by Cronin. He's just not that good...Maybe he'll get better, but he's certainly not the guy for the Galaxy right now. Of course I'm sure he's cheap and with all the money going to Landon & Becks what do you expect.
To start, he's not the only guy at fault and nobody is blaming him alone, but what a joke that statement is:
"Maybe one or two I've given up I could have done more on, but for the majority I think I've done everything I can"
His main problems are his absolutely horrible poor positioning and the too many rebounds in front of his goal (deflect them over or to the sides, if you can't catch them) which cost LA at least as many goals as X, Vanney and Co or the weak overrun midfield.
I don't think you can fault Cronin with half of the goals scored against him.
Remember last year? Joe Cannon is one of the best goalkeepers in MLS history and he let in a lot of goals.
Dan Loney said on his blog that the key statistic is shots faced. That's not a goalkeeping stat; that's a possession stat, Loney says. Cronin leads the league in shots faced. That says a lot about the defense and the midfield.
With the exception of Franklin and Vanney, this is the same defense that Cannon played behind last year -- and only Franklin is a significant upgrade, and he's a rookie. Central midfield has gotten worse after the departure of Marino, Gray and Harmse.
You could put Lev Yashin, Gordon Banks or Dino Zoff behind the Galaxy's defense and central midfield, and they wouldn't have much better luck.