30-year-old Nick Rimando, one of the ‘Best Penalty Kick Stoppers’ lifts the Volkswagen MLS Cup MVP award. The Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando had 2 historic saves in the famous penalty kick shootout against LA Galaxy that earned him the MVP award.

A Montclair (California) born highly talented Major League Soccer goalkeeper from Real Salt Lake has added yet another landmark to his achievements. The first-choice keeper of Real Salt Lake (RSL) for the season 2008 – 2009 also made headlines in the month of July, 2008 while he was honored with the title of MLS Player of the Month.

His performance against the arch rivals Los Angeles Galaxy turned out to be another career best for Nick Rimando as it was second occasion in two games that he encountered penalty kick shootouts. Previously during a game against Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference Championship, Nick had proved superb by saving as many as three penalty kicks.

The joy and excitement could be seen reflecting from the face of Nick after the tough performance. In a subsequent interview Nick had stated that after going scoreless for 120 minutes, it was certain that the game would be decided on the penalty shootout. He wasn’t new to the situation as he already had extremely impressive career record in the shootouts; 11 goals to 20 attempts.

Throughout his career, Landon Donovan had missed only on one occasions out of 22, thus he’s considered to be one of the most reliable penalty kick shooters in the history of league soccer. That day, Rimando turned his tally to 2 in 23. However, Donovan put it all on his tired legs though Rimando made it very visible how well he anticipated the direction of the ball.

Nick Rimando