SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Andy Gruenebaum spurned the San Jose Earthquakes’ attempts to sign him for the 2015 season, it left the club without a veteran backup for new annointed No. 1 David Bingham.
The Quakes almost had to find out last weekend if that was a critical roster-building process.
Eighty minutes into what would be a 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution1151649654" style="z-index:0" tabindex="0">on Saturday, Bingham and teammate Clarence Goodson cracked heads while trying to deal with a low cross from Chris Tierney.
Goodson, who eventually headed the ball clear, backpedaled from the collision to keep his balance, but seemed otherwise unhurt. Bingham, meanwhile, stayed on the ground, prone and largely motionless. He was evaluated by head athletic trainer Ron Shinault. The 25-year-old was deemed fit to continue, and he finished off the match – which was a good thing for the Quakes, who had already used their final substitution early in the second half when right back Marvell Wynne came up hurt.
Bingham was held out of the more potentially dangerous portions of1151649655" style="z-index:0" tabindex="0">Tuesday’spractice as a precaution, but he told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday that he expects to be available for the weekend, when San Jose host Real Salt Lake (Sun., 5 pm ET, ESPN2).
“It’s great,” Bingham said of his head. “No problems at all.”
Bingham said that the time he spent prone on the Gillette Stadium turf was not what it might have looked like. He was “just trying to get the bearings back,” but he always planned to stay in the game.
“I don’t know if it’s a point of pride, but I’d like to think that I’m a pretty tough kid,” Bingham said. “I can take a few knocks. And I’m always going to want to play, no matter if it’s a scrimmage, [regular season] game, [US] Open Cup. Whatever it is, I want to play. . . .
“It was definitely a hard collision between us. It was a little bit of an unfortunate situation, because the ball was whipped in low and hard, and we both have to try to make a play. No one’s at fault. We just have to try to get the ball out.”
Quakes coach Dominic Kinnear told reporters this week he was willing to go with 10 men against New England – captain Chris Wondolowski volunteered this week for emergency goalkeeping duties, if ever required – had it come to that.
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“Safety for the player is above anything,” Kinnear said. “If he would have been in any way questionable, we have to take him out of the game. Ron went on the field, talked to him, went through all the preliminary tests, and talked to him a little bit. He said he felt fine. We flew home that night, and Ron kept checking with him on the airplane, and he came through OK. . . . We’re being a little bit careful, but as far as I know, he’s available for Sunday as well.”
Bingham tends to come off his line more than most MLS ‘keepers -- he ranks first in the league in catches and punches, two statistical categories that indicate a goalkeeper's propensity to challenge for crosses -- but to Kinnear this collision wasn’t a byproduct of his aggressive style.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with the type of goalkeeper David is,” Kinnear said. “I just think it was the type of play it was, with two players going after the same ball. Once Clarence commits and David commits, there’s no time to back out of the challenge.”
Bingham, whose 19 saves in four matches are the most in the league and are pacing ahead of the club record 137 saves made by Jon Busch last year, says he has no plans to change his style in light of last Saturday’s scare.
“If you’re worried about getting into collisions because you’re coming out too far, well, you should probably hang up the shoes, because that’s just part of the game," he said. "I’m willing to put my body on the line to keep the ball out of the back of the net.”
