Entering the season, there was no doubt Bill Hamid was our number one goalkeeper, as he has been the last several years, and we were hoping to see him take the next step and move even further into the discussion of elite goalkeepers in MLS. I think you can say he did that and then some. This season, the Annandale native who just turned 24 a day ago (Happy Birthday, Bill!) continued to develop his decision-making abilities and become more of a leader in guiding the defensive line inside the box. His improvement in leadership really allowed him to grow as an overall keeper, allowing him to be in better position to make the stops needed.
Athletically, Hamid, D.C. United’s first HomeGrown Player, really stepped up his game further, causing him to make some miraculous plays that not only saved the day, but would actually allow United to counter and make a play of their own down in the offensive end of the field. It seemed like every week, Bill had at least one stop nominated for MLS Save of the Week and he routinely had multiple that could have also been nominated. He stopped 110 shots over the course of the year, which is a ridiculous amount. His heroics in many key moments during the season helped secure valuable points that spurred D.C. United to the biggest turnaround in league history.
While he didn’t make the training camp or the 2014 World Cup roster for the U.S. Men’s National Team, he did appear in training camps for the USMNT in January, April, October and November, the highlight being getting his second cap and playing all 90 minutes in a tough away match against Ireland on November 18th. And, with the exception of a few weeks he missed after injuring himself in USMNT camp back in April and a knock he picked up right before the World Cup break, Bill Hamid was the man between the posts in every league match, starting 30 games and both games in the playoffs. Bill was also named to the MLS All-Star team, playing the 2nd half in a 2-1 MLS victory over Bundesliga side Bayern Munich.
There are still some moments where Bill gets hot behind the collar (though he has tempered those emotions considerably over the years) and he still has lapses where he’s not in the right position to make a play on a shot. Some would say that not being in the right position forces him to make an easy save look like a miraculous one. Also, as many of us now know through expansion draft talk, Hamid’s salary is now non-exempt and counts towards the salary cap, and that figure will only rise as he improves. Still, this should be an easy question: