It’s roughly seven hours before kickoff against the Chicago Fire, and Bill Hamid is dripping sweat in the hotel gym. The D.C. United goalkeeper has pulled the hood of his sweatshirt low over his eyes and secured it with a set of black headphones, losing himself in a pre-match routine of weightlifting and stretching designed to activate his muscles long before the team’s official warmup later that evening.
Hamid works mostly in silence, pausing only for a brief exchange with coach Ben Olsen, who flits aggressively from machine to machine for the better part of an hour. For Hamid, these gameday workouts have been woven into the fabric of his weekly routine, the ongoing pursuit of consistency that he and his goalkeeper coach, Zach Thornton, believe separates the good goalkeepers from the great ones. “Like clockwork,” Hamid says of his decision to hit the gym during road trips, and thus far the on-field product has proven superb: Hamid leads Major League Soccer in save percentage (78.26) among qualified keepers, ranks second in shutouts (9), second in total saves (91) and second in goals-against average (1.09).
All of those marks are on pace to eclipse Hamid’s season totals from 2014 when he was named an MLS All-Star and received the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year honors.
“I think if you look at the numbers,” Hamid said, “I might be better than 2014 right now.”
More importantly, Hamid’s stretch of brilliant play has coincided with a relative paucity of goals for United’s attack, which ranks in the bottom half of the league in total goals this season. Whereas Hamid received support in the form of 1.53 goals per game in 2014, during what is widely viewed as the best year of his career, that number has dipped to 1.29 goals per game in 2019, including three shutouts in July as United lost its place atop the Eastern Conference.
So in that regard, during a season in which United has as many draws (9) as wins (9) with 10 matches remaining, Hamid’s performance feels a smidgeon more exemplary — and necessary.
“The thing that I kind of preach to our keepers is 100 percent take care of what you’re supposed to take care of,” Thornton said. “Anything in and around (the 6-yard box), you take care of and deal with what you’re supposed to. And then the way we train will give you the ability to pull off the save you’re not supposed to make. You won’t do it every time, but you’ll do it more times than not.”
Statistics suggest Hamid’s ability to make the saves he isn’t supposed to ranks near the top of MLS this season. As analytics have infiltrated the soccer community in recent years — most notably as they relate to potential transfer targets — one of the more popular metrics is expected goals, or xG for short. It’s a complex mathematical formula used to predict the number of goals that are expected to be scored after an assessment of where a shot originated on the field and the manner in which it was struck — be it an acrobatic volley, a header or a tap-in finish.
While most applicable to outfield players, the xG metric can be applied to goalkeepers as well to measure how many goals an average keeper should have allowed. Comparing the xG figure to the actual number of goals conceded, paints a picture of how often a keeper succeeds in pulling off “the save you’re not supposed to make,” as Thornton described it.
Though Thornton and Hamid don’t monitor this statistic themselves, their impressions of Hamid’s performance are supported by data on the website American Soccer Analysis (ASA). Both men referenced several examples of saves an average keeper might fail to make in games United ultimately drew, meaning those moments were most valuable, and sure enough Hamid ranks second in MLS for performance above the xG metric. He’s allowed 4.67 fewer goals than expected, according to ASA, and he’s one of only two goalkeepers whose total exceeds 2.66 in that category with at least 2,000 minutes played.
“Can you walk into games knowing that you’ll have to pull off something spectacular to keep your team in the game, to get something, to either get 3 points or 1 point?” Hamid said. “And sometimes you have to pull off something spectacular once or twice in a game.
“When I think of that (xG) stat, that’s what I think of. As a goalkeeper you have to walk into a game thinking you have to pull of something spectacular to give your team the opportunity to get something out of it.”
NYC whips a ball from the right side of the box toward a pair of attackers near the penalty spot. Hamid makes a sprawling save to his right off a diving header from midfielder Alexander Ring. After a brief scramble, center back Frederic Brillant clears the ball to safety.
Hamid: “I can think back to a bunch of games where we tied (and I made important saves). There’s been a lot of ties this year. New York City away I had a save in the last couple minutes, right outside the 6-yard box. If we don’t save that, we don’t get a tie, you know?”
Striker Luis Caicedo fires a shot from outside the box that clips off the heels of center back Steven Birnbaum, causing a wicked redirection. In an instant, Hamid shifts his body from right to left and dives back in the opposite direction to tip the ball onto the post, where it is eventually cleared by Birnbaum.
Thornton: “That’s just ability. He set for the shot, which is great, he has his feet under him, and then he’s able to change directions and still push to make the save. I mean, that’s ability and that’s something you can’t really teach.”
Hamid: “That’s why we train. You train throughout the week (for) game situations that could possibly happen, and that’s something that we work on every week. The redirections, you’re trying to just make sure your balance is dead-even, dead down the middle, so if you need to go back the other direction it doesn’t take that much longer as it would if you lost your momentum.”
An Atlanta cross caroms around the penalty area before settling at the feet of prolific striker Josef Martinez near the top of the box. Martinez takes one step backward to meet the ball and swings immediately to hit the shot first time. The ball skirts a pair of United defenders and forces Hamid to make a diving save in the lower-left corner of the goal.
Hamid: “It was clear to see that he was getting set to turn and shoot, but I didn’t see him (actually) shoot before the window closed. It was clear that he had put his left foot in the ground to shoot with his right foot. You just react and if one side of the goal is covered, it kind of makes it obvious where (the ball) could go. I think Donovan (Pines) had the right side of my goal covered, so there was only really one place — or two places — he could go: down the middle or to the left.
“I think you’re watching the ball the whole time. It’s all in your vision. If you’re looking at somebody who has the ball at their feet, you can see the whole picture. You just kind of watch that whole thing go on and try to react as quick as possible.”
Thornton: “Bill does an outstanding job of moving his feet and getting set. I think that’s one of the reasons he’s so successful. He sets and with how quick he is, he can see (the ball) late. He can see it come through traffic. He has the ability and the confidence to wait. I’m not going to guess or lean. I’ll wait until I see it. It might be late, but I’ll wait until I see it and I trust myself to make the save.”
Hamid’s obsession with preparing for every scenario he might encounter during a game is born out in training, where he is exceedingly competitive during individual shooting drills. Last month, during a session prior to the team’s game against Atlanta, Hamid implored his teammates to challenge him with powerful shots after facing a run of curling efforts toward his back post. “Can we get some bangers please?” Hamid shouted, and soon enough the attackers complied, varying the looks they were giving their keeper.
“I’m pretty competitive, and those training drills are an opportunity for the goalkeepers and the field players to kind of just see where they’re at and have some fun with them,” Hamid said. “There’s no defense, there’s no obstacles in between. It’s just a finishing drill, you against the goalkeeper. That’s the beauty of it. That’s kind of how you start playing soccer, right? You go to a park with a friend and they just shoot on you, and then you guys switch. I think that’s the beauty of it and I think that’s why we make it competitive — but also make it fun.”
His favorite player to compete against, though, is no longer with the club. Hamid says former United midfielder Zoltan Stieber presented the greatest challenge during 1-v-1 moments because of his “sweet left foot.” Stieber, the Hungarian international, had the ability to “hit the ball hard and he could curl the ball, I think, the best out of any player on the team, from top to bottom,” according to Hamid, who relished his reps against such polished unpredictability, the combination of which fostered some of Hamid’s growth.
But in the absence of Stieber, who mutually parted ways with United last month, Hamid has enjoyed his tangles with striker Quincy Amarikwa instead, another player whose feistiness never wanes in training.
“I think what Bill recognizes in me is my expectation to try to win every 1 v 1,” Amarikwa said. “So I think Bill is a professional in his understanding that (even) though in the moment I may frustrate him or we’re enemies in that moment, he can see the bigger picture that it makes us better. I don’t think many people understand that.
“What makes it difficult to beat him is the ability to make up for his mistakes. Whereas other goalies, when they are out of position or they catch themselves on the wrong side of a defender or player they’re punished for that. Bill has the ability to make up for those moments. I think that’s what makes him, you know, a top goalkeeper on the field.”
Which is exactly what United has needed during its ongoing offensive malaise, a skid the team would like to halt against top-seeded Philadelphia Union this weekend. But until the attackers work through their drought, be it Sunday night at Audi Field or somewhere down the road, at least Hamid gives United a chance.
“There’s been a lot of games this year — a lot of games — where we haven’t been clicking offensively,” Hamid said. “So now if you know you can give the team an opportunity to get something out of the game (with a shutout), now how do you influence, how do you take it to the next level and influence the offense? I think that’s kind of where my mindset is.”
