The Right Man

The PFA raised a few eyebrows when they voted Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea into the PFA Team of the Year. Twitter and Facebook alike lit up with messages of astonishment (mostly from rival fans) parroting tabloid-fueled soundbites like "dodgy keeper!" and "weak on crosses!" Those epithets were borne of inconsistency and adjustment last season; they do not stand up very well to scrutiny this season.

It's hard to know the reasons why anyone votes the way they do, but my guess is that in addition to the by-now-expected great saves, his fellow pros noticed that De Gea drastically cut down on his errors. Specifically, it was the kind of error he didn't make that helped him greatly this season.

Remember the last-second equaliser at White Hart Lane, the one that led to Gary Neville's damning indictment? It was a mis-punch than happened to fall to Aaron Lennon, who crossed for Clint Dempsey to score. This is a "second phase" mistake, one where the keeper parries or pushes the ball back into play and then concedes. These are not always punished - had Lennon not happened to have been in the spot where the ball fell, there's no goal. There were two other second-phase mistakes as well, against Newcastle and (debatably) Swansea, where he parried shots back into the six-yard-box for goals.

This is not to excuse a second-phase mistake - a goal is a goal - and Eric Steele will have worked very hard with De Gea after each of these incidents. But those are the worst things De Gea did all season, and as 'clangers' go, they're just not that awful. It wouldn't have escaped the pros who voted - certainly not the Spurs players - that in that same game, he made a pair of brilliant saves which kept his team in the game.

Mistakes - BAD mistakes - happen. De Gea deserves credit for going through a highly pressurized season without having done anything like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Nothing against three excellent goalkeepers in Simon Mignolet, Ali Al-Habsi, and Pepe Reina. These mistakes happen. Joe Hart, last season's PFA vote-winner, allowed three balls to go right through him this season (at Sunderland, Southampton, and home to West Ham). It didn't happen to David De Gea in 2012-13.

As for his famed aerial weakness, it's still not the strength of his game. But opponents who bombarded him with crosses to exploit it largely got nothing from him. Stoke at the Brittania, Villa at Villa Park, and most recently, West Ham at Upton Park tested the Spaniard to and well beyond the laws of the game. He passed those tests.

There is a human element at play when humans vote, and De Gea's standout performance against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu will have been noted by his fellow pros. While the award is supposed to reflect league play, that stage is one that was not afforded to the excellent Hugo Lloris or Petr Cech, back to his best, to say nothing of Mignolet and Ben Foster, who toil in relative obscurity. Nonetheless, for me the PFA got it right. De Gea deserves his spot.

South of the Border - Jonny Walker Interview

While the majority of American keepers who succeeded abroad did so in Europe, Jonny Walker followed a different path. He went to South America, excelling with two of Chile's biggest clubs. He won a league title, played in the Copa Libertadores, and experienced the raw passion and spectacular atmospheres that European leagues cannot hope to match. Thanks to Jonny for spending some time answering my questions. Let's let him tell his story in his own words: -->

Most Americans looking for a move abroad went to Europe. You were the first to go to a top-flight league in South America. How did that move come about? 

I was drafted by Dallas in ’96. They had a fantastic goalkeeper in Mark Dodd (I still talk to him to this day), and the club had also drafted fellow U-23 keeper Jeff Cassar. Dallas wanted to change my contract from the standard league minimum ($24k if I remember correctly) to a developmental contract ($1200 per month maybe??). I was stubborn, so I went back over to Sheffield United around August in ’96  in England where I'd had a youth trial 2 years earlier. They were ready to go, but I was unable to obtain a work permit. The rules had changed with the post Bosman Ruling (Dec. 1995) atmosphere. I had no direct European ancestry to obtain a EU passport and would not qualify for the new National Team requirements which would morph into what they are today. So back I came to the States in January of ’97 with a mission of playing matches. I knew that I needed games so I mailed my resume (funny isn’t it?) out to every coach in the A-league. Jacksonville had a team (Cyclones) and they were coached by Manchester United legend Dennis Viollet. Viollett saw Sheffield United on my resume, picked up the phone and spoke with either Howard Kendall or Dave Bassett, who knew me from my trials period, and offered me a contract sight unseen.

While at Jacksonville, I met Jorge Alvial, who was the assistant coach. Jorge was a former professional goalkeeper from Chile, and he always had these incredible soccer magazines showing crazy environments from South America. Attendance for A-league matches looked nothing like what I saw in the magazines, so wanderlust took control and I was able to get out of my contract and headed off to Santiago, Chile for a trial with Universidad Catolica.

The Catolica trial took longer than expected (7-8 months) as I missed a transfer window and I was a foreigner with no experience. A big club like Catolica could not risk a foreigner spot on me with little experience (although they liked me), so they loaned me to Huachipato for the ’98 season. After that it all came together.

What kind of cultural adjustments did you have to make? Did you speak much Spanish when you arrived? 

I had two years of High School Spanish, so I wasn’t starting from zero. Conversational Spanish was difficult, but I forced myself to go to the city center on days off and interact with shopkeepers, bus drivers, etc… I also roomed with a teammate in Huachipato (Cristian Uribe) who did not speak any English. Huachipato is in Concepcion, quite a ways from the Capital of Santiago. There were no parts of the town that catered to foreigners. The television channels were all local. It was total immersion, and it was great.

What sort of adjustment period did you go through on the pitch and the dressing room, in terms of establishing yourself as the number one and getting to know your teammates? You had to do this twice, actually, since you initially went out on loan. 

It is extremely difficult no matter what club that you do this with. The dressing room psychology and group hierarchy structure could be the subject of volumes of books (edit - couldn't agree more; that's why I'm writing one). Initially, as a player, you just want the respect of your fellow players and coaching staff. It gives you the feeling that you deserve to be there and gives you self-worth. Once you reach that point, you naturally begin to crave more. You hear the fans chanting for certain players, and you want to be one of those players. You are constantly assessing fellow pros in your locker room and at other clubs, always asking yourself: "Am I better than him, or can I be better than him?" Goalkeepers are a bit different when it comes to establishing the #1 position, as coaches rarely make a switch in the position, and if they do they rarely go back on the decision. While at Huachipato I was waiting for a chance to play. The team was performing well, so I knew I had to sit. The other keeper injured his finger (not broken) and I got to step in. I performed well and could notice a change in the way the big name players spoke with me and addressed me within the group. I could also feel the dislike of the other goalkeeper towards me. This was completely different than when I was at Universidad Catolica. The starting goalkeeper, Nelson Tapia, was extremely kind to me. He almost treated me as a brother, giving insight and wisdom, even when things weren’t going well for him personally. I always tried to emulate this type of relationship. I carried this with me to Colo Colo as well, when a young Claudio Bravo was my teammate. We got along very well and I gave him the best advice and friendship I could. He is currently the Chilean #1 and plays for Real Sociedad.

Nelson Tapia

You won the 2002 Apertura title with Universidad Catolica. What are your memories of that season? 

I remember the extraordinary amount of talent that we had. Catolica was always loaded with some of the best South American talent that money could buy. But we worked incredibly hard for each other. We had one of the best teams in South America. We had a stretch of 700+ (I think) minutes without conceding a goal in league play. We were bounced by Sao Caetano in penalties in the Libertadores. We beat Flamengo home and away, and eliminated Once Caldas of Colombia, who would win the Libertadores a couple of years later. The team we advanced out of group play with was Olimpia (Paraguay) who won it all that year, beating Sao Caetano in penalties. We were a great team. 

The title-winning 2002 Catolica team, with Jonny back row, second from right.

Eventually you went from Catolica to their greatest rivals, Colo-Colo. did this cause you problems with either set of fans?  

Absolutely. My first press conference at Colo Colo was disrupted by members of La Barra who were screaming that they didn’t want the “mother fucking gringo from Catolica” amongst other loving phrases. The press ate it up. It wasn’t easy, but fortunately I won them over with performances on the field. We had the Superclasico against Universidad de Chile and I turned in a good performance and received man of the match honors. After that game, they supported me 100%. Ironically, I would face Catolica in the semi-finals while playing for Colo Colo. The fans who had loved me for four years did an about face. 20,000 Cruzado fans singing “Gringo, Gringo Concha Tu Madre……. En San Carlos(Catolica's stadium) le damos a comer”. Translated “Gringo, fuck your mother…In San Carlos we gave you food (or we fed you).

Back problems forced your eventual retirement. Can you describe how and when your problems started, and how it felt to be forced to give up playing? 

I had just begun to feel good playing again. I found happiness in my play in Columbus, after injuring my shoulder in New York.  Sigi Schmidt had been announced the Head Coach after Robert Warzycha had coached interim following the departure of Greg Andrulis. Sigi called for a mini-camp at the end of the season and we were playing an inter squad scrimmage. Someone played me a ball that had to be cleared first time and as I was about to strike the ball, it took a funny bounce and I tried to adjust my strike of the ball even though I had already started the movement. 

Mentally I was excited to be playing again and was called into the December camp for the 2006 World Cup.  I was working out on my own, but my back wasn’t getting better. They took an MRI and I was going to miss the camp. Then they sent me to one of the best doctors in the country for lower back issues in L.A. a month or two later. Without boring you with all of the details, I was effectively told I was done and that there was nothing that I could do to step on the field again. This was extremely difficult news to take, as I had just turned 31 a few months earlier. I was in a good spot mentally before this and was finally at a place where the game was easy. Goalkeeping is experience-based, and most goalkeepers don’t come into their own until 28-32 years old. I tried to exit with grace and without fanfare (not too hard actually!) Once I knew I was done, I went into the clubhouse one day with a black garbage bag, cleaned out my gear, and didn’t make a production out of it. “Here today and gone tomorrow” is the way that soccer works. Contracts come and go. All of us hope that we have a respectable career and that when we walk away from the game it is in a way that celebrates the contribution and effort that one puts in through the years. It doesn’t always work that way.  

For a time, you wore Selsport gloves, rare for an American keeper. What were your alltime favorite gloves? 

I loved the Selsport gloves. They were white with a powder blue foam. Probably my favorite gloves I had during my entire career.

Jonny in his Selsports

In keeper speak I was a traditionalist. Classic cut, size 11. No extended palms. No finger inserts. No Gunn Cut. No webbed foam. I always preferred the 3mm foam to the 4mm for better feel on the ball. I could talk gloves for hours on end, as I was a big soccer fan before I became a pro. I grew up watching Soccer Made in Germany on PBS, and I was always drawn to the neat gear that everyone had.  The first gloves I really remember would have been the Reusch ’86 World Cup gloves. They had a compressed foam, with a circular palm design. Coolest feature was the neon slash on the R. I also remember the Umbro Essen, neon green with white foam. Pat Bonner was sporting them and they were definitely a must have. 

Pat Bonner in his Umbro Essens

My alltime favorite, however has to be the Uhlsport F-1. They didn’t have the best feel or foam, but my God they were badass looking. Blue and white foam on the palm. Neons and blues on the top. I would love to just see a pair of these today.

 Peter Shilton in the F-1s.

Win Things!

My friends at Selsport are celebrating Sunday's Capital One Cup Final with not one, not two, but THREE different competitions that could land you all sorts of great stuff, including Bradford City keeper Matt Duke's signed Wrappa Classics, and even his jersey from the Final. Very cool. Go here to enter.

As for me, I'm still mostly wearing my Selsport Elite Spirits, sometimes adding the Wrappa Classic to the mix. Amazingly, my ProFlex Internas from SIX YEAR AGO still have plenty of life and grip, too. When you find something that works, stick with it!

Selsport Interview Series #2: Richard Lee, Brentford

Brentford's Richard Lee has long been a friend to The Goalkeepers' Union. I've written about Richard for Goalkeeper Magazine and reviewed his excellent book Graduation: Life Lessons of a Footballer here last year. Along with being a pro keeper and a writer, Richard is an entrepreneur and a coach. He started GK Icon to improve the standard of goalkeeping, offering training, evaluation, and psychological coaching to keepers of all ages. Richard joined Selsport as an endorsee before this season, and took some time to chat with them. Thanks, as always, to Mark Tipton at Selsport, and to Richard.

Who has been the greatest influence on your career?
My Dad

Who do you rate as the top 3 goalkeepers in your football lifetime and what qualities did you most admire about these keepers
Iker Casillas
Peter Schmeichel
Gigi Buffon

Do you feel that the current coaching for goalkeepers in the UK is relevant to the modern game?
It is at GK Icon ;o)

If you were to play in another country which country would you choose and why?
America – I love the States.

Which types of training sessions do you prefer to take part in?
High tempo or more technical sessions low reps, high intensity – it matches what a keeper will do in a game. Explosive power is key.

What has surprised you most about being a professional goalkeeper?
How quickly things can change! Hero to zero and vice versa can happen instantly.

What are your thoughts on English goalkeepers in recent years?
We’ve got some outstanding ones. However, I do feel there’s room for improvement, although I hear GK Icon are well on their way to ensuring it does improve!

If you could choose one piece of advice that you have been given to pass on to another goalkeeper… What would that be?
Don’t be governed by other’s opinions of you. What matters is how you think, feel and act. Give everything you have to your game and be proud of it regardless of whether things are going well or not so well. Enjoy it.

If your best friend in football was asked to list your 3 biggest strengths as a goalkeeper. What would he say?
1 – Reading of the game
2 – Power
3 – Saving penalties

Do you practice mental prep skills as part of your weekly training?
Yes – I wrote a book on it! ‘Graduation, Life Lessons of a Footballer’ (how many more things can I plug here?!)

What exercises are most beneficial for young keepers to practice?
Technical exercises to give you a base to build from, then increase your power and speed. Added to that, it’s essential you ‘learn’ the game’ (positional sense) and figure out what allows you to perform to your maximum every week (thought processes).

If you were to design your own kit, what color style would you choose?
Black – I like it.

Do you have any particular rituals or superstitions before games etc.?
No. I just ensure that I eat well in the days leading up to it and get a good night’s sleep the night before, then give everything.

Your hopes any goals for the next year?
I would like to win the Brentford FC player of the year award again and for Brentford FC to win promotion.

Selsport Interview Series #1: Scott Brown, Cheltenham Town

Glove gods Selsport - whose name and images you might have noticed around this site before - have been conducting interviews with their endorsees, and I'll be happily reproducing them here. First up is Scott Brown of Cheltenham Town. Scotty is active and engaging on Twitter, so give him a follow at @Scotty_brown85.


Scott Peter Andrew Brown (born 26 April 1985) is an English footballer. A goalkeeper, he is a product of the Wolverhampton Wanderers youth academy and played in the League of Wales for Welshpool Town before signing for Bristol City and then at the start of the 2005–06 season joining Cheltenham Town.

Who has been the greatest influence on your career?
I think my family have been very big influences on my carer. If it wasn’t my mum picking me up from school and taking me straight to training at Wolves three nights a week and games on a weekend, it was my dad kicking balls at me in the park or the garden to help me or watching or supporting me at games. My brother and sister have also been very supportive of me as well. In terms of coaches, I think Mike Stowell who I was with at Bristol City did a lot for me. I have become very good friends with him since, and has been a great source of help and advice since I left. My coach now at Cheltenham, Steve Book, has been great for me. He is always out working with the goalkeepers and always trying to improve us and probably most importantly his sessions are very enjoyable.

Who do you rate as the top 3 goalkeepers in your football lifetime and what qualities did you
most admire about these keepers?
1 – I used to love watching David Seaman. He had such a great presence about him and was so calm with the way he went about things and never seemed flustered by anything.
2 – When I was at Wolves I got the pleasure of working with Matt Murray, who, if it wasn’t for injury,
I think would have been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership. He used to come for absolutely everything in the box, and his hands and shot stopping were amazing to.
3 – In the current era, I think that Joe Hart is one of the best best in the world and can only improve. But in the Euros I was very impressed by Gianluigi Buffon. I hadn’t really seen much of him before, but I thought he was the best goalkeeper at the tournament.

Do you feel that the current coaching for goalkeepers in the UK is relevant to the modern game?
Yes, very very important, and I don’t think that there is enough emphasis put on just how important it is. I think all full time football clubs should have a full time goalkeeping coach, but unfortunately finances dictate that this is not always possible. Coaching is evolving, especially goalkeeping sessions, and are becoming better and better and more game-relevant.

If you were to play in another country which country would you choose and why?
Spain I think, because of the sun, and would love to live by the sea.

Which types of training sessions do you prefer to take part in?
High tempo or more technical sessions. I prefer a bit of everything. I don’t like to go into games thinking, "I should have done this, I should have done that." I like to have ticked all the boxes.

What has surprised you most about being a professional goalkeeper?
I think the most surprising thing was how alone you are. Sometimes it can feel like its just you and the goalkeeping coach against the world. You could have a not great game and keep a clean sheet and everyone says well done, but then have a great game and lose two-nil but only you and the goalkeeping coach will realise that you have had a good game, despite the result.

What are your thoughts on English goalkeepers in recent years?
I think that they are not given enough chances at the top level, which is why they haven’t developed as well as some have expected. But with the likes of Hart, Robert Green and Jack Butland, there is plenty of talent coming through.

If you could choose one piece of advice that you have been given to pass on to another goalkeeper, what would that be?
Like I said earlier, I like to tick all the boxes, so I would say, don’t regret what you didn’t do, whether that is in terms of training, stretching, eating and drinking right, or in a game situation.

If your best friend in football was asked to list your three biggest strengths as a goalkeeper, what
would he say?
Hmm, I would say, shot stopping, kicking, and decision making.

Do you practice mental prep skills as part of your weekly training?
I practice visualisation leading up to games, particularly the night before. It is something I have started to do recently and want to do more of, as I believe it is very beneficial to performance and confidence.

What exercises are most beneficial for young keepers to practice?
Anything match related is a good exercise. If it’s not match related or technique related then why are you doing it?

If you were to design your own kit what color style would you choose?
I would go baby blue or yellow as I like those colours.

Do you have any particular rituals or superstitions before games?
Yes, I always put my left glove on first, then take it off, then put it back on again before the right one. I only do this the day before a game and on a match day.

Any goals for the next year?
Hopefully build on last season and hopefully go one step further than losing in the play off finals.

The Rehabilitation of Rene Adler

Prior to Euro 2008, Germany manager Joachim Low picked Leverkusen's Rene Adler, then just 23 years old, to be his third keeper. That may not sound like much of an honor, but it has been the habit of a succession of German managers to pick the most promising young keeper in the Bundesliga to serve as third keeper at major tournaments. It spoke to Adler's potential, already being realized at that stage by a series of spectacular performances for his club.

Four years on, Adler, now at Hamburg, is playing brilliantly and was recently called into the national team for a friendly against old enemy The Netherlands. At 27, his career has progressed to the level many expected back in 2008.

It's just that everything went wrong in between.

The international retirement of Jens Lehmann and the horrifying death of Robert Enke helped primed Adler for the grand stage of the 2010 World Cup, and he began Germany's qualification campaign as the number one. But a serious rib injury which required surgery just a month before the tournament ended his World Cup dream. Little did he know it was only the start of his troubles.

Manuel Neuer excelled in South Africa and became the entrenched number one. Adler's injury was more troublesome than first expected. His return to action was delayed, and when he did come back, he wasn't the same. Explosiveness was replaced by hesitancy. He played as if he didn't trust his body. More injuries followed, including knee surgery. He lost his place at Leverkusen to Bernd Leno, while a new crop of even younger keepers such as Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ron-Robert Zieler built reputations and forced their way into national team reckoning. Adler was fast on his way to irrelevancy.

At the end of the 2011/12 season, Hamburg signed Adler on a free transfer, and he began the new season as  number one. Injuries finally behind him, he immediately began performing at his athletic, spectacular best, buoyed by newfound maturity and the kind of perspective that comes with seeing how easily a career can disintegrate. Germany are blessed, as usual, with a wealth of goalkeeping talent, but it's to Adler's credit that he has inserted himself back into the discussion.

Enjoy some of his work from this season:

Keep a Journal

Back in season 1990/91 - before the internet, sort of - I played for Boreham Wood FC, a Non-League side in Hertfordshire which, at that time, was in the Vauxhall-Opel League. I had recently had a work permit application turned down, and with my career in flux, I knew I needed games. So I returned to the Wood, where I had spent the second half of the 87/88 season. I was 24 years old and still learning, and knew I needed to improve. In addition to working hard in training, and studying the top keepers of the day (Seaman, Southall, van Breukelen, etc), I began keeping a journal. After every game, I would go home and write down   every detail, starting with the basics (the date, time, opponent, ground, weather, pitch conditions, and result),  followed by a match report describing everything I'd had to do, and ending with a rating from 1-10 of my performance. I still have them today. Here's one:

Boreham Wood v Bishops Stortford. Tuesday, March 19, 1991, 7:30 pm. Broughinge Road, Borehamwood. Weather: cool, drizzly, very strong, gusty, swirling wind. Pitch: wet & heavy. Score: Boreham Wood 1 Bishops Stortford 1.

Obviously the scoreline shows that this was a big improvement on our last three matches (ed-we'd conceded 2, 3, and 3). It was horribly windy, and I had it coming more or less toward me in the first half, only to have it change direction and come directly at me in the second half as well! That's not the first time that has happened this year.

I wasn't terrible busy in the first half. Once again, though, we let one of them clean in on goal right down the middle. I came out and he shot wide to my left. I had to really chug to get down to a diagonal through ball on the right side of the box, taking it off the foot of a forward. That one felt really good. Then Jason R was comically short with a backpass and I came out and whacked it a hell of a long way first-time.

We scored 15 minutes into the second half, and predictably came under some pressure afterwards. I was very quickly out of my box to send a left-footed clearance over the away stand. I was pleased with that one because if I hadn't come for it, the guy would have been in on goal. Soon after that one of them was clean in on goal, but as I came out, he shot over the bar. Then another through ball, down the right side, and one of them was right behind it. We got to it at the same time and I got my right foot to it  and it went into touch off him for our throw.

We held out for 75 minutes, but they equalized from a corner. It was driven low towards the near post, towards Rob F. I shouted 'Away!' but it got caught in a mass of legs, dropped perfectly to their #9, and he rammed it in low to my left. Damn. Then the same player drilled a 25-yarder right at me, face-height, and I caught it cleanly. At the other end, Jason and Steve P had good chances but couldn't finish, and it ended 1-1. 

Oh I forgot, I did really well with a swirling cross in the first half. It came from my right and I stretched for it with my right hand and flicked it firmly out of trouble toward the left touchline. That one was tricky.
My rating: 7. Good off my line, comfortable handling, good kicking considering the conditions. Not too many actual saves. Cumulative rating (19 matches): 6.66.

Okay. Not a very thrilling match. I picked a short one on purpose. Also, the writing isn't great. That's something else I was still learning. But you get the idea.

Broughine Road, 1990. Just like the San Siro.

I did this after every game and found it very valuable. First, it made me think consciously about what had happened in the game, and honestly appraise my own performance. Second, it helped me identify trends. If I found myself writing "I was a little slow off my line" or "I came for the corner but got bundled off it" more than a couple of times, I knew there was something that needed to be addressed.

I wish I had done more, though. A lot more. I wish I'd jotted down a few notes before each game, noting how I'd slept, what I'd eaten, how I was feeling, and how confident or nervous I was. I wish I'd been a little more insightful about my confidence levels during the game, knowing that 'surface' confidence can fluctuate greatly during the course of a game. But mostly what I wish is that I'd done this for every game of every season, not just this one. I did it only sporadically prior to 1990/91, and never again afterward.

So the practical value in keeping a journal is that it forces you think think hard about every game you play, honestly analyze your performance, and identify trends. There's more, though. Take it from a man pushing fifty (sort of): no matter how good your memory (and I can remember a lot from a very long time ago), not everything stays with you forever. Write it down. Or, if you don't like to write, turn on your webcam and keep a video journal.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else keeps a journal, and what sort of information they record. Leave a comment!