by: DTL Staff

As the year draws to a close, a few points to think about for both the team coach and the goalkeeper.

The Goalkeeper Is a Team Player
Consider the way a goalkeeper has been perceived in the past and how now is the time for change. The trend has been one of isolating goalkeepers from their teammates and this has occurred for four main reasons:

Attitudes

A coach typically regards the goalkeeper as a different "animal," as someone to be treated differently and separately from the rest of the team.

Elitism

Perhaps as a consequence, goalkeepers in turn have begun to regard themselves as a breed apart, and this has developed an elitist attitude.

Specialization

The specialist goalkeeper coach and goalkeeper-only schools have further fueled this development.

Equipment

The soccer equipment companies have capitalized on the personalization trend.

While this is understandable, we know it is wrong! The goalkeeper is a team player, a vital one without a doubt, but no more or no less important than other players. Team play and team tactics are developed around 11 players. Not 10 players and a goalkeeper.

Playing the Position (Not "Performing" the Position)

One factor inhibiting the development of goalkeepers is the preoccupation with the athletic and acrobatic performance of the goalkeeper, rather than his or her effectiveness. Appearing good doesn't necessarily mean one is good.

Good goalkeepers "play the position," they do not "perform" the position.

The result of this preoccupation with performing has been an over-commitment of practice time to diving, leaping and technique work in general, while neglecting some of the vital aspects of goalkeeping: reading the angles, decision making, cooperation with teammates, judgment of situations and the action required. Goalkeepers must be placed in situations that test knowledge and nerve -- where, for example, a keeper may do a little more than hold a position when confronted by an opponent with the ball.

Gordon Banks, the world-class England goalkeeper during the '60s and '70s, is probably best remembered for his magnificent one-handed flying save off a goalbound header from the legendary Pele in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. It was called 'the save of the century.' The reality is, Gordon Banks would never have been around in Mexico to make that fabulous save if his basic goalkeeping and understanding of goalkeeping had not been absolutely sound.

Amongst the professionals, Gordon Banks was known and respected for being an unspectacular goalkeeper who did the simple things often and well. It helped make him the best in the world!

As the tactical role of the goalkeepers change, and with the introduction of the Back Pass rule, we see goalkeepers moving outside of the penalty more frequently than in the past. This may be to clear a dangerous situation, to take a free kick or to advance with the ball when the opposition has dropped back. The Back Pass rule asks much more of a goalkeeper's foot skills.

Therefore, kicking, passing and ball control practices are essential for a keeper. The goalkeeper now becomes a legitimate part of practices that in previous years had been presented for the benefit of the field players.