[oldalum]

But seriously, anybody have a clue if Birkel is actually good? She has barely had to do a thing in goal this year. She has 10 saves total. For the season.

My impression, FWLIW, is that she seems good but is inexperienced and, as you note, pretty untested--most of those saves were easy grabs. I haven't seen her fail to block a shot she should have. The backup GK has faced more activity than Birkel due to playing mostly with some reserves in the lineup. I think Birkel's shortcoming to date (which is understandable) is a few misjudgments about when to come out of the goal in the run of play. She made what might have been a bad (or too early) decision to come out against VT, which resulted in an unmarked player shooting straight on to an open goal, if it were not for Elise Evans who had smartly positioned herself on the goal line when Birkel left the goal to go out along the end line; Evans not only blocked the shot but also cleared it out of dangerous territory (I remember her doing that once before to save a goal, a year or two ago). This sequence starts at 2:25 in the video I linked to above. She's a freshman and has not faced many of those situations (I wonder if they try replicating those kinds of decisions in practice?). She has been passing out of the goal only horizontally to the back line; she has not tried bypassing the back line to pick out an open midfielder near the sideline--probably a good thing. In warmups, and a few times in games, Birkel seems good at reacting to and blocking shots; I have not formed any impression of her anticipation and positioning for possible shots in games. I don't remember any poor decisions on corner kicks whether to come out of the goal or not; there may have been one.

[oldalum]

But seriously, anybody have a clue if Birkel is actually good? She has barely had to do a thing in goal this year. She has 10 saves total. For the season.

My impression, FWLIW, is that she seems good but is inexperienced and, as you note, pretty untested--most of those saves were easy grabs. I haven't seen her fail to block a shot she should have. The backup GK has faced more activity than Birkel due to playing mostly with some reserves in the lineup. I think Birkel's shortcoming to date (which is understandable) is a few misjudgments about when to come out of the goal in the run of play. She made what might have been a bad (or too early) decision to come out against VT, which resulted in an unmarked player shooting straight on to an open goal, if it were not for Elise Evans who had smartly positioned herself on the goal line when Birkel left the goal to go out along the end line; Evans not only blocked the shot but also cleared it out of dangerous territory (I remember her doing that once before to save a goal, a year or two ago). This sequence starts at 2:25 in the video I linked to above. She's a freshman and has not faced many of those situations (I wonder if they try replicating those kinds of decisions in practice?). She has been passing out of the goal only horizontally to the back line; she has not tried bypassing the back line to pick out an open midfielder near the sideline--probably a good thing. In warmups, and a few times in games, Birkel seems good at reacting to and blocking shots; I have not formed any impression of her anticipation and positioning for possible shots in games. I don't remember any poor decisions on corner kicks whether to come out of the goal or not; there may have been one.