SEATTLE - If Nick Rimando told you he was a professional musician, you'd buy it. Spiky black hair, tattoos everywhere. Sure. But if he told you he was a professional goalkeeper?

Mmm, maybe not.

After all, Rimando hardly fits the prototypical mold of a dream keeper. No imposing frame, no long arms. Heaven knows, no height. One of the heroes of Real Salt Lake's astonishing playoff run stands only 5-foot-9 and change - "I like to say I'm 5-10, in the sheets," he joked - and by looks alone, probably wouldn't get picked to guard the net in a pickup game at the park.

Yet as RSL prepares to meet the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup championship game on Sunday, Rimando finally is attracting an awful lot of attention

RSL's Nick Rimando has a small frame, but big moves. (Scott Sommerdorf/The Salt Lake Tribune)
for his ability to do a lot more than just stand there and look good.

"Everybody thinks goalkeepers are huge and big" to cope better with incoming crosses, he said. "But goalkeeping is not just crosses. Goalkeeping is reading the game, being able to play with your feet, and shot-stopping. I think I've done well with that in the league, and being in the league 10 years has proven that. And going to two championships now is something that people are looking at and giving me a little respect for now."

How could you not, after what Rimando did last weekend?

The 30-year-old married father - and, yes, a huge music fan - all but stood on his head during a heart-stopping penalty-kick shootout against the Chicago Fire in the MLS Eastern Conference final, stopping three of the seven shots he faced to help send RSL to the title game. He guessed the right direction on all but one of the shots, too, inspiring question after question this week about his secret.

"Can't give those things away," he said with a smile. "We have one more game."

That Rimando has thrived for a decade in Major League Soccer without the size that many coaches demand for his position speaks to the rest of his abilities.

He's amazingly athletic, for one thing, allowing him to react quickly and reach shots that fans might not expect. Teammates say they don't know many keepers who can make the kind of saves Rimando can.

What's more, he sees the game well, and - having played the field during his high school career in southern California - plays well with his feet, something with which many bigger goalkeepers struggle. That allows his teammates to safely play balls back to him, and take advantage of his smart passes out of the back.

"He has the best feet of any goalkeeper ever to play in the league," said general manager Garth Lagerwey, himself a former keeper in the league. "I know that doesn't help him stop shots, but it certainly helps our team, in terms of our ability to play confidently in the back and make the entire defense better."

His talent became apparent quickly, once Rimando joined the now-defunct Miami Fusion in 2000 as a rookie out of UCLA.

Lagerwey and assistant coach Jeff Cassar were playing for the Fusion at the time, and remember Rimando impressing everybody within the first month of the season with his shot-stopping ability. "This isn't a college kid," Lagerwey recalled thinking. "He's really got a knack for this."

And he has proven it, over and again.

Rimando played a key role in helping D.C. United win the MLS Cup during his five seasons with the team before joining RSL, and has stopped 13 of 42 regular-season penalties in his career - an impressively high ratio. He's also among the top keepers in league history in saves, shutouts and victories.

"Regardless of putting up numbers like that, he's able to put us in the attacking half consistently, and that's amazing," defender Chris Wingert said. "That's something that very few goalies in the world can do."

That all comes back to his athleticism, distribution and decision-making - even if he has had to adjust over the years to playing shots and crosses differently than a bigger keeper might.

It doesn't hurt when teams surround him with bigger center backs such as RSL's Jamison Olave and Nat Borchers, but Rimando has more than done his part. Fans surely remember the fusillade of shots he used to face before RSL improved its defense around him.

"Sometimes, it's instinct," Wingert said. "Sometimes, it's skill and vision - those are things you can't see when you just look at a person, and those are things Nick has."

He's pretty proud of them, too.

Though it's fair to wonder about his future with RSL because of highly regarded backup goalkeeper Chris Seitz - he's one of those young guys who does look the part, with an impressive set of skills to match - Rimando already feels as though he has disproved the notion that only big guys belong in goal.

"It's something that I take personally," he said, "and when people told me I couldn't do it, I wanted to do it, and it made me work even harder every day. It's good to be that role model for short goalkeepers all over the world."

Which is not to say he wants to show off in another shootout on Sunday.

"No, I hope we win in regulation, for sure," he said, "for my wife's sake. She's pregnant and she almost had the baby the other night. We're a good team. We're a good enough team to win in regulation."

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GOOD DECADE

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando has enjoyed a solid career in Major League Soccer:

YearTeamRecordGASavesShutouts
2000Miami10-11-1411022
2001Miami15-5-5331165
2002D.C. United9-14-5401317
2003 D.C. United10-9-6291007
2004D.C. United7-3-313264
2005D.C. United15-9-6359211
2006D.C. United0-1-1460
2007RSL6-13-8371467
2008RSL10-10-1039968
2009RSL10-10-629739