Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen will surpass 7,000 regular season minutes played in his MLS and KC career tonight when the White Puma goes between the pipes at Columbus Crew Stadium (6:30 p.m. CT on KSMO). He'll become the 25th player in club history to log more than 7k minutes in a KC uniform and just one of four active players to do so.
Perhaps more impressively, Nielsen has accrued more minutes in MLS regular season matches than all but two other keepers since the start of the 2010 season. He's missed just four MLS matches since he signed with the club and trails only Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) and Matt Pickens (Colorado Rapids) in minutes played the last three years.
Most regular season minutes played by MLS goalkeepers from 2010-2012 (min. 4,000 minutes)
<strong>Goalkeeper</strong> |
<strong>Mins</strong> |
Matt Pickens |
7,290 |
Nick Rimando |
7,020 |
Jimmy Nielsen |
6,997 |
Troy Perkins* |
6,097 |
Kevin Hartman |
6,075 |
Jon Busch |
6,075 |
Donovan Ricketts* |
5,580 |
Will Hesmer |
5,575 |
Kasey Keller |
5,715 |
Matt Reis |
5,130 |
Tally Hall |
5,106 |
Sean Johnson |
5,016 |
Stefan Frei |
4,926 |
Joe Cannon* |
4,541 |
Dan Kennedy |
4,004 |
*Played for two teams since 2010
Nielsen -- named an MLS All-Star in 2010 and one of three Sporting KC picks on the 2012 MLS All-Star First XI -- leads Major League Soccer with 10 victories this season and his seven shutouts are second-most in the League behind Joe Cannon (8). He's won MLS Save of the Week three times this season, including last week, and his 1.11 goals against average in MLS play is third best in League history among goalkeepers with a minimum of 4,000 minutes played.
