Football Positions: Goalkeeper

Definition

  As the name speaks by itself, a goalkeeper is a player who keeps the goal. Positioned in the penalty area, the job of the football goalkeeper is to prevent the opposition players from scoring. He is the only player on the field allowed to use his hands (only in penalty area). Other main duties of the goalkeeper are to organize the defense.

Equipment

  Currently the goalkeepers wear shirts with long or short sleeves, shorts or long bottom and football shoes. They also wear gloves in order to protect their fingers from injury. There are a few goalkeepers who wears baseball hats in order to protect their eyes from the sun light. Petr Chech wears head guard, because he fractured his scull in a game.

  There is a rule that the goalkeeper's kit should be with color which distinguishes them from their teammates and the oppositions shirts.

Goalkeeper styles of play

  There are four different styles of playing as a goalkeeper. Of course there are players that play more than one style and more of them are becoming one of the best in the position.

Shot stopper - that is a goalkeeper who is very good in stopping oppositions shots. Positives of this style are common and there are no negatives.

Passer - there are some goalkeeper who could pass the ball very good. They are also called "good with foot". If you have passer goalkeeper in your team then you can use it as an outfield player. Negatives are that despite being so good, there are attempts that are not that good and very ofter these mistakes are punished.

Commander - this style is for a goalkeeper who use shouts in order to organize and give a tips to the defense. Goalkeeper stands with face to the play, so he can organize the play very good and that is the positive of the style. If you have such a player he can conflict with other leader in the defense and that is the negative.

Cross stopper - in moder game there are a lot of crosses through the game. Some of the goalkeepers are more attended to do punch or catch the cross in order to stop it from getting to the opposition player. I call this style of play a cross stopper. The negative of this is when the goalkeeper misses the ball or punch it right at the opposition player.

Tactics for styles

  In the become more and more modern style of play tiki-taka or Barcelona's style, a goalkeeper-passer is needed.

In British football you will need a cross stopper.

All of the tactics and leagues are well suited for commander and shot stopper.

Needed Abilities

What a player needs, in order to become a good goalkeeper in football? Here is the answer:

- handling - good with hands.

- reflex - a good reflex in order to react to situations and shots.

- positioning - this is very liked ability, because it is very important for the goalkeeper to be at the right place in the current situation.

- command of area - this will be needed if the goalkeeper is the player that commands the defense.

- throwing - in order to start a quick counterattack.

- passing - if for the teams tactics there is a need of passer, then the goalkeeper should have the passing ability.

- foot playing - there are a lot of situations when the goalkeeper should stop the shots with foot or just fake the opponent.

- composure - the goalkeeper should be concentrated through the whole game and especially in situations when he has to make a intervention.

- one on ones - this is the ability to save the ball when an opposition player is one on one with the goalkeeper.

- penalty saving - I think it is clear enough, this is the ability to save penalty shots.

- cross stopping - this is the ability to punch or catch a cross.

Of course he needs no to be injury prone.

Top players

I think that the best player in that position is Iker Casillas, the goalkeeper of Real Madrid. In the last 5 years he is voted as the best goalkeeper in the world.

  Other players, that deserve to be mentioned are Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer. According to me these three are the top players in that position.

Future talent

According to me top three future talents are

Marc-Andre ter Stegen, 20 year old, who plays for German Mönchengladbach and the national team of Germany, despite being in compete with Manuel Neuer.

Thibaut Courtois, 20 year old, Belgium's national goalkeeper. He currently plays for Atletico Madrid, send on loan from Chelsea.

David De Gea, 22 year old, Spanish goalkeeper currently playing for Manchester United. He plays for Spanish national team Under 21, as he can not compete with Iker Casillas, yet.

Interesting facts

There is a known speech "Goalkeeper is half of a team".

Oliver Kahn, goalkeeper of Germany was the first goalkeeper ever to win the Most Valuable Player of the World Cup

Rogerio Ceni is the goalkeeper with most scored goals 1067 (109). He payed his whole career in Sao Paulo.

There are three generations of national goalkeeper in Bulgaria with the family namer Mihaylov (Biser, Borislav and now Nikolay).

The first goalkeeper sent of in World Cup is Gianluca Pagliuca of Italy in 1994.

Romanian goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam saved most penalties in a shout-out, four consecutive.

The most expensive goalkeeper is Gianluigi Buffon. In 2001 Juventus payed to Parma €54.2m in order to have him in their team.

 Usefull links

  http://www.seriousgoalkeeping.net
  http://www.prosoccerkeeper.co.uk/