When it comes to penalty kicks, most teams have a designated penalty kick taker or two. For example, over the years in Columbus, if the referee pointed to the spot, you’d automatically expect a guy like Guillermo Barros Schelotto or Federico Higuain to grab the ball and take the shot.
On Saturday night, when Justin Meram earned, took, and scored an 84th minute penalty, it prompted an interesting tweet by Massive Report’s Patrick Murphy, who noted that Meram became the fifth player to take and convert a penalty kick for Crew SC this season. That piqued my curiosity because that seems like a lot. An awful lot. That’s a high number. The nerd in me immediately rushed to the archives to see exactly how rare that is.
WATCH: Meram buries PK against San Jose
Here is Crew SC’s penalty kick situation in 2016:
- Kei Kamara 1/1
- Higuain 1/1
- Ola Kamara 1/1
- Ethan Finlay 1/1
- Meram 1/1
As Murphy noted, that’s 5/5 with five different guys.
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The five penalty kick takers ties a club record set in 2005. Likewise, those guys spread five PKs five ways, except they weren’t nearly as efficient at converting. Here’s what the 2005 team did:
- Cornell Glen 1/1
- Simon Elliott 1/1
- Chris Henderson 0/1
- Mario Rodriguez 0/1
- Kyle Martino 0/1
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The five penalty kick scorers are indeed a new club record. Meram’s conversion broke the tie held with the 2011 team, which was also perfect on the season, but they split their nine chances only four ways. Here’s what the 2011 version of the Black & Gold did from the penalty spot:
- Andres Mendoza 5/5
- Emilio Renteria 2/2
- Robbie Rogers 1/1
- Jeff Cunningham 1/1
Amazingly, the previous Crew SC record of four penalty kick scorers in a single season was set exactly five years ago to the day: Jeff Cunningham’s penalty kick conversion took place on August 27, 2011, in Seattle. He was not only the fourth Black & Gold penalty scorer that year, but it also gave him sole possession of Major League Soccer’s all-time career goal scoring record with 134, breaking the mark of 133 that had been held by Jaime Moreno. Cunningham’s record stood for almost three years before it was broken by Landon Donovan on May 25, 2014.
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But anyway, if you were one of the 20,031 at MAPFRE Stadium on Saturday night, you not only got to see a 2-0 Columbus victory, but an obscure slice of Crew SC history as well when Justin Meram became the club’s record-setting fifth penalty kick scorer of the season.
