It's been a bit of whirlwind year for Simon Thomas.
Since returning to Vancouver to rejoin the Whitecaps at the start of this season, Residency alumni Thomas has seen action for the Whitecaps in Reserves and PDL action, been on loan to Edmonton and made his senior debut for the Canadian national team.
<i>"I feel like I've been all over the place this year to be honest"</i>, is how Thomas sums up his many travels in 2013.
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<i>"Racked up the air miles. It's good.
"I was able to get quite a number of matches through the PDL and Reserve League. Not the consistency I would like but it's all part of the process."</i>
As we've said before, being a goalkeeper is one of the hardest positions on the pitch and one of the most heavily scrutinised when you make mistakes. It's also the toughest one to get you actual playing time.
Barring injury or a sending off, there can only be one keeper turning out in any given match and as a third keeper on a squad, that makes it harder to show your worth and challenge for that starting spot.
That's tough enough, but when you then find yourself as one of four keepers on a MLS squad, well, how do you keep that focus and motivation going?
<i>"You just got to learn from it"</i> says Thomas. <i>"I feel that I have age on my side right now and it's just about developing myself, so I'm trying to take as much as I can from David, Brad and Joe, and anybody else I see that has an aside that they can offer to me."</i>
With all those keepers around, and those coming through the Residency program, it did make it hard for Thomas to get a lot of actual playing time this year.
With first Brad Knighton, and then David Ousted, seeing a lot of time in the MLS Reserve League, Thomas only saw minutes in three matches, playing the full 90 in only one of them. He did get additional time in four Reserve friendlies, playing the full game in two, and also split the goalkeeping duties for the U23 side, where he made seven appearances in PDL action.
In amongst it all he was part of a loan deal with Edmonton that saw the Victoria born stopper train with the Caps but on call if the Eddies had a goalkeeping crisis. Although he travelled through to Alberta a couple of times, he was only ever on the bench, but that's a situation Thomas has no issues with.
<i>"I was just there for cover. It was just the way it worked out with them. I think if they brought me in every time they needed a keeper and played me, it says something to the guys they've got there."</i>
He may not have seen any NASL action but Thomas did make his senior debut for the Canadian national team in January. He came on as a half time sub against Denmark, conceding one goal in the 3-0 loss. Three days later he started and kept a clean sheet in the 0-0 draw against the US in Houston.
Impressing the coaching staff, Thomas was named as one of the three goalkeepers in Canada's Gold Cup squad in the summer, although he didn't play in any of the three group games.
How has he found the whole Canadian experience this year?
<i>"It was awesome. It was my first major tournament. I can't speak enough about it. Apart from the results, it was the highlight of the year for me, other than getting my debut for the national team."</i>
Looking ahead, the uncertainty of the coaching situation in Vancouver will impact a lot of the players at the club right now.
On the goalkeeping front, Joe Cannon is likely to move on or move up the organisational ladder. Brad Knighton is also felt likely to move on to pastures new.
Depending on which manager comes in, and how he views things, there is a good chance that Simon Thomas will move up into the back up spot with the Caps behind Ousted.
But that isn't enough to satisfy the keeper, and neither it should be.
<i>"I'm always looking to be the number one. If you don't have that ambition in your career you're not much of a footballer. Every day it's just focus on getting better and reaching that goal of being the number one."</i>
At just 23, Thomas certainly does have time on his side and could be a Whitecaps fixture for quite a few years still to come in his quest for that goal.
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