Goalkeeping Tips, Tidbits and Random Thoughts

Paul Robinson atones

Spurs and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson makes up for this bit of bad luck against Croatia—sort of—with bit of good luck, scoring one against Watford.

Labels: Matchday observations

Cheapshots

How do you with cheapshots? In general, crap like that is done with the intent of taking you out of your game. Retaliating shows your opponent they've accomplished their job, with the added detriment that it is often the retaliator who gets caught and punished.

Best to take the high road, and show you won't take any stick by your play in the box. Go hard--but legally. A good aggressive slide through a breakaway, or vigorous (and loud!) claim of a cross will go a long way. Finally, use good technique to protect yourself, facing the oncoming danger at all times and using arms and legs to protect yourself. You can't always fend off someone intent on cleating you, but you can at least minimize the damage.

Labels: Psychology

Highlights

It's tough to find time to post now that the spring season is underway, but I did find a few minutes each week to play in an indoor men's league. We went undefeated... until we reached the championship game, unfortunately, losing 5-3 in a good match.

We had a videographer at the match who was kind enough to compile a few highlights of mine. So I thought I'd post it to the web so you all could see the old guy at work.

The arena is unusual for indoor: 40x60 pitch without walls and full outdoor rules including throw-ins and offside. The tough thing for a keeper is that the 6-yard box doubles as the penalty box, so there is very little room to operate, particularly on breakaways. Thus the final save in the clip, which is a slide tackle because the ball was just outside the area.

So, here it is: JB Goalkeeping Game Highlights

Labels: Matchday observations