FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – There’s no statistic for timely, game-changing saves.
It would be difficult to quantify those stops, really, but you know them when you see them. They’re the highlight-reel saves made when a goal not only seems likely, but inevitable, and when a goal would not only shift momentum, but perhaps alter the course of the game entirely.
Bobby Shuttleworth’s 42nd-minute stop on Dillon Powers this past Saturday fits the bill.
With the Revs leading 1-0 on the stroke of halftime, Powers threatened to pull the Colorado Rapids level when he burst through the middle, controlled a pass from Juan Ramirez and let fly.
But Shuttleworth stood his ground, spread his arms wide and was able to get just enough of his left arm behind the shot to pop it over the crossbar.
Instead of going into halftime level and with the home side on the front foot, New England maintained a 1-0 lead which they eventually doubled en route to a huge 2-0 win at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
“When you have a player like Bobby back there, you always have a chance,” said Darrius Barnes, who played both right back and center back on Saturday. “There are going to be some cases where the defenders don’t do their jobs or we have a little slip-up here and there, and when you have somebody like Bobby back there to back you up, it’s big time.
“It picks you up. When he makes a big save like that, you know you can’t let him down the next time.”
Head coach Jay Heaps echoed that sentiment, saying that it serves as motivation for a defender to repay his goalkeeper when a big-time save is necessary. While a team never wants to allow quality chances for the opposition, game-changing saves can provide an impetus to fight that much harder on the next play.
“It’s a lift,” Heaps said. “It’s not confidence because you know you’ve let them through, but it’s a boost saying, ‘Alright, our keeper’s made a great save. Now we’ve got to bail him out on the next one because he bailed us out.’”
Heaps, who spent nine years on the Revolution’s backline, never played with Shuttleworth as his backstop, but he did have another guy behind him capable of making some big-time saves.
“Having been a defender, I know that feeling all too well because Matt Reis saved us a bunch of times, and every time he made a great save, you felt like you could turn around and you wanted to make the next play for him,” Heaps said.
Barnes said it’s that type of attitude – playing for each other – which defines the Revolution as a group.
“That’s kind of what the mentality of this team is – just having each other’s backs,” he said. “One person screws up or messes up, but one person’s there to pick him up. Then it just goes full circle and comes back around.”
