Summer of Stats: Team Saves

Hello again, welcome back for another article of the Summer of Stats! Today’s topic is Saves, not as an individual marker for Goalkeepers, but as a team metric of saves. 

As a reminder, the NCAA defines a save as the following: “A save is awarded to a goalkeeper only if a shot otherwise would have gone into the goal. A goalkeeper can be credited with a save without catching the ball. If the goalkeeper blocks the ball or punches it wide or over the goal, that goalkeeper can be credited with a save, provided the ball would have otherwise gone into the goal. To receive a save, the play must be a shot on goal. A goalkeeper cannot receive credit for a save on a cross.”. 

For the first time this summer, St. Louis City SC Leads this stat with 89, which isnt inherently a good thing, because the more shots against you, equals more chances to make saves.

Also, as a reminder, St. Louis is bottom 5 in Major League Soccer in Goals Against Per 90, which tells us that an abundant amount of offensive chances are being created against City SC, and some of them are being saved.Thank you for reading today’s installment of the Summer of Stats.