This Guy’s A Keeper
Back in the days when Jorge Campos swung from the crossbar or rushed out to midfield to join in the attack, goalkeeping was an adventure with the Galaxy.
Then along came Kevin Hartman in 1997, and suddenly the story line changed.
Instead of a goalkeeper known as much for his antics and his colorful uniforms as his play, Major League Soccer gained one who, over the next eight seasons, became renowned for reliability.
On Saturday, Hartman, 30, will make his 213th start for the Galaxy when it plays the Colorado Rapids at the Home Depot Center in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.
No other Galaxy goalkeeper has come close to that number. The flamboyant Campos, long retired from MLS and scheduled to play a farewell game for Mexico’s 1994 veterans against their Brazilian counterparts at the Coliseum on Nov. 10, is second in the Galaxy record book with 43 games.
Saturday night’s match will also be Hartman’s 33rd playoff game, an MLS record for a goalkeeper.
Only Cobi Jones, 34, has been with the team longer.
“It’s weird,” Hartman said. “I continue to plug away. I don’t necessarily feel like I’m an old player, but I feel like somebody who has been in this league long enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong, when to push and when to relax a little bit.
“I feel like I can kind of lead the young players, and that’s something that’s an ongoing battle because you’re always having new guys in and out of the team. Making sure that they feel comfortable is something that obviously is going to make them play better.
“So there’s that, coupled with teaching them the game. A lot of these kids come out of college, or maybe some didn’t even go to college, and they need to learn the game tactically. And they need to learn about discipline. That’s something that the leaders on this team do.”
Hartman’s mentor, to a degree, was Campos. By 1998, one year out of UCLA, he had replaced Campos and become the Galaxy’s starter. He has not relinquished the position.
“Kevin continues to be one of the most outstanding goalkeepers this league has ever seen,” Coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday. “He and Cobi Jones are really what the people of Southern California identify when they talk about the Galaxy.
“He earned the captaincy when Sigi [Schmid] was the coach, and he continues to earn it with me here.”
Hartman acknowledges having learned from Campos, Mexico’s former No. 1 and one of the sport’s most popular characters.
“He’s somebody who, when he gave up a goal, could smile about it and get on to the next play,” Hartman said. “He was able to get over stuff. It’s not that he didn’t care, he did care. He was very happy with how lucky he was.
“I remember one time he told me, ‘Hartman, you’re a better goalkeeper than me, but I sure am lucky. You want to go for a ride in my Ferrari?’
“I thought that was pretty funny. He realized how lucky he was. He was gifted, obviously, athletically, and learned the game really well so that he was able to anticipate a lot of things.
“But he was ... always gracious for what he had, and I consider myself to be of the same mold and I continue to work and try to achieve the things that I want to achieve.”
Meanwhile, the statistics keep piling up.
Hartman goes into Saturday night’s game having shut out opponents in seven of the Galaxy’s 30 regular-season matches this season and has 56 shutouts in his 212-start MLS career, including playoffs.
More impressive is his 1.16 goals-against average in regular-season play, best in MLS.
His consistent performances have kept him in the U.S. national team mix, but veterans Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel have always been ahead of him in the pecking order, and now there is further competition from Tim Howard, Jonny Walker and several others.
His style and his ambition have changed over the years.
“Earlier in my career, I wanted to make that big save, and that big save became kind of what I was known for,” he said. “Now it’s kind of like, I want the longevity and I want the consistency and I want to make sure our defense can relax and realize that they have somebody behind them that they can depend on.
“That’s really the thing that I respect about goalkeepers like [Kansas City’s] Tony Meola and guys who have done it for a long time. Because there’s nothing easy about this....
“I feel lucky that I’ve been able to play for as long as I have, but I also don’t feel content with where I am and would like to have my name kind of etched into history here within this league. So I do feel like I have things I need to achieve, I feel like there’s a lot more out there for me.”
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Keeping Up
The MLS career goalkeeping leaders:
GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE
*--* Goalkeeper G Min GA Avg 1. Kevin Hartman 184 16,424 211 1.16 2. Joe Cannon 132 12,006 161 1.21 3. Zach Thorton 169 15,156 207 1.23 4. Jorge Campos 51 4,327 65 1.35 5. Nick Rimando 113 10,378 156 1.35
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*--* VICTORIES Goalkeeper G W 1. Kevin Hartman 184 93 2. Zach Thorton 169 91 3. Tony Meola 215 89 4. Scott Garlick 178 84 5. Mark Dougherty 122 65
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*--* SAVES Goalkeeper G SV 1. Tony Meola 215 962 2. Scott Garlick 178 815 3. Kevin Hartman 184 721 4. Zach Thorton 169 647 5. Joe Cannon 132 584
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