Zach Thornton Helping Establish Chivas USA Tradition

Injuries tend to have a yin-yang effect on professional athletes, sometimes they are good, other times, not. For Chivas USA 'keeper Zach Thornton, injuries opened the door to opportunities this year which he may not have had otherwise.

First joining the red-and-whites in August of last year, he competed with teammate Dan Kennedy for playing time through the rest of the season with the latter winning out on most occasions. The two were expected to compete for the starting job this year, but a pre-season injury sidelined Kennedy for the entire season. Thornton made the most of his opportunity at the starting job and put in an outstanding performance.

Despite some early season jitters, Thornton and his defensive four settled in quickly and started racking up clean sheets. By year's end, Thornton would register a league best 12 shutouts, a tally accounting for nearly half of the games he started. Many of those clean sheets came by way of heroics on the part of Thornton, making observers wonder if he had made an off season trip to the fountain of youth. However, no 'keeper can ever get through a season without yielding a single goal, but Thornton made sure they came at a premium and ended the season with a 0.87 Goals Against Average (GAA) -- also good for the top spot in MLS.