Player Profiles: We Three Keepers

This starts our annual player profiles. Going in reverse order from your community player rankings (that's the # listed here) we start with the three backup keepers - Josh Ford, Andrew Weber and Doug Herrick.

#35 Josh Ford

Injury prone. Those are the first words that come to mind with Ford. After having a healthy college career injuries both minor and more significant have curtailed the playing time and development of Seattle's remaining drafted keeper. This year he spent most of his time on the Long Term Injured List.

In practices and the rare Reserve appearances Ford has good reactions. His build is more Hahnemann than Rimando. He explodes well in reaction and is an adequate shot blocker. It is hard to judge his line leadership as he has not seen significant game time. His distribution is fairly good.

Best Case 2014: Health. Just staying healthy would have meant that Ford would have had a couple starts every year as he's won the third keeper role ever since being drafted. He's just not been healthy. The lack of a tertiary tournament nor a USL PRO team will also limit his ability to get playing time.

#33 Andrew Weber

When Weber was first acquired by Seattle Sounders FC he was known as the Amazing Race guy as he and his brother featured on the show that was airing during training camp. He started 2013 with his hometown Phoenix FC Wolves, as that club spiraled into the cellar they loaned Weber to Seattle right as the team here needed help. He'd get a handful of appearances.

Weber is a fringe MLS goalkeeper who should be around the North American professional ranks for some time. Though not great at anything he is more than serviceable and is willing to study on the bench waiting for an opportunity. If a team has a young 2nd keeper someone like Weber makes perfect sense to push them and help educate them on their future.

Best Case 2014: With Phoenix of the USL PRO having a new ownership group there is a chance that Weber gets to go back to his hometown and start. He also makes sense for an MLS team in three competitions, or one with a fragile 1st team keeper.

#32 Doug Herrick

Herrick managed to convert from a semi-pro in the lower levels to a full time pro as an MLS pool keeper. Though in the keeper pool Herrick was a regular at Sounders FC practice. He is also Guam's starting keeper, which has meant that he's traveled all over East Asia. Sadly his air miles on East China Air are likely to go unused.

Herrick may not be the reflexive shot stopper that Ford is, but there are things he does well. For a younger keeper his command of the line is fairly solid. He's still learning and looks to be rising as expected for a youngster (keeper age). Could improve his distribution a bit.

Best Case 2014: Doug was waived by the league and put into the Waiver Draft. With three new NASL sides and 1-3 new USL PRO teams (pending retention of Tampa and Antigua, addition of LA Galaxy) there is no doubt that Herrick will be a pro and probable starter somewhere. It is just a matter of where he lands and how many minutes he gets to see if the mid-20s keeper can develop into a full time MLS keeper.