Everbody Soccered - Week 3

Goalie, goalie, goalie get your soccer'ds here.

  • I was fortunate to talk to John McCarthy. McCarthy is one of the remaining standout goalkeepers and is looking at getting picked up in the third or fourth round of the MLS draft. Four goalkeepers were chosen in the last two rounds of the 2013 Draft. It looks like he's spent some time with some MLS clubs out west...
  • Brad Guzan was called for a penalty on the gif below. Some cried dive, some said Guzan shouldn't have came out at all. Guzan did the right decision in going forward but shouldn't have gone down. If he puts pressure of Suarez he cuts down the angle and likely makes the save. Yes it's a dirty play (watch Suarez's left foot) but if Guzan doesn't put himself in a situation to get conned he can't get a penalty called on him. (No card was given on the play.) Guzan gets close on the penalty but not enough to keep it out. Liverpool tied AVL 2-2 and the first goal can be seen here (skip to 2:30, penalty kick at 3:00). It's tough goal to save. If he stays higher then maybe he gets on it but then gives up the slotted ball on the ground, a higher percentage shot.
SuarezDive.gif
  • Zolotimes writes about the Philadelphia situation of MacMath v. Blake and more from MacMath's perspective. This is a great article from someone who has followed Philadelphia. (Apparently Vancouver originally had a deal with DC United for the number one spot but Philadelphia made a better offer.)
  • Philly Soccer Page did a great story on Bob Rigby, Philadelphia's last goalkeeper selected at number one. Here is an old post of mine that covered USMNT goalkeeper eras and you'll see his name in the mid-70s graph. Rigby is currently the color commentator for the Union and the only highlights I could find were of howlers so I decided against posting them.
  • Kelsey Wys was the first goalkeeper picked in the NWSL draft. A second rounder from Florida State to Western NY, she's played with the U23s and U20s USWNTs and will be competing with USWNT goalie Adrianna Franch and Mexican youth national Pamela Tajonar.
  • Williams and the u-seventeens won the first game of the Aegean Cup, 2-1 over France. William Pulisic saved a penalty kick with a couple more saves to preserve the win.

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu tarafından bu yıl 15. kez düzenlenen Mercedes-Benz Ege Kupası başladı. Turnuva'nın ilk gün maçlarında A Grubu'nda U16 Milli Takımımız, Ukrayna ile 1-1, Azerbaycan ise Yunanistan ile 0-0 berabere kalırken, B Grubu'nda oynanan karşılaşmalarda Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Fransa'yı 2-1, Norveç ise İskoçya'yı 3-0 mağlup etti.

  • Cech uses some unconventional methods to prevent a goal.
  • A little old (but it's historically-based so it's okay), Justin Bryant wrote about the evolution of goalkeeping, covering the laws, styles and what teams are looking for now.
  • English International Bert Williams died on Sunday. "Nicknamed The Cat, he spent the majority of his playing career at Wolverhampton Wanderers where he won the League Championship and FA Cup. At the time of his death Williams was the oldest living England international." He is probably more known, at least in America, for being in goal when US won 1-0 over England in the 1950 World Cup. The Miami Herald took a look back at the game and Sporting Intelligence inspects photographs of the goal scored on him at the 1950 World Cup.
  • Mattia Perin is apparently the "new Buffon" but as a goalkeeper who guesses on nearly every close range shot and has no interest in holding anything, I would disagree.
  • FC Dallas selected Canadian Tesho Akindele, a D2 standout who had 76 goals, 33 assists in 80 games. Seems like everyone forgot that D2 goalkeepers are a step behind D1.
  • Pro Soccer Talk linked the top five EPL saves of the week but I meh'd it.
  • Someone on Big Soccer provided links to most of the US's World Cup games.
  • I found some neat pix, thanks to @AntiqueFootball
    • Italy's Paolo Rossi scores v West Germany, World Cup Final 1982.
    • Blackpool goalkeeper Gordon West in 1961.
    • Mix Diskerud is still trying to get in contact with Taco Bell
  • Lastly I thought this tweet about Zack Steffen, University of Maryland goalkeeper, was interesting:

John McCarthy Interview

John recently finished his senior year at La Salle University. He has played for PDL squads Reading United and Ocean City FC, even earning a glowing review for his performance against New York Red Bulls in this last year's Open Cup start. McCarthy is a well experienced goalkeeper who set records at La Salle in saves (468), shutouts (28), and games played (75) and is looking to make the next step. Below are highlights of McCarthy and an interview with him about his career so far.

 

When did you start playing goalkeeper and why?

When I was 8 or 9, we were at that age where we had a goalie but we still rotated a bit. I gave it a shot one day and I kind of liked it. I guess I was okay at it. The coach kept asking me to play and I just stuck with it.

How did you end up at La Salle?

My dad went to La Salle. He was a big reason why I went there. I didn't get too many other looks from other schools. There was La Salle, Seton Hall and Rutgers. I really liked the coaching staff at La Salle and I felt like I had the best opportunity to play there. And I felt a little more comfortable going into a problem I knew something about as opposed to Seton Hall and Rutgers.

[John's father was twice named all-conference in 1978, 1979.]

You've trained with PDL teams Reading United and Ocean City Nor'easters. What was that experience like?

Playing with Reading and Ocean City, it was another level because it was all the best college guys getting recruited to play for a PDL team. So I got to play with some of the top guys in the country both at Reading and Ocean City. The environment was great. You train almost every day, maybe one or two days off a week depending on how many games you had. Everyone at that level wants to play professional so you're stepping into an environment where nothing is a given to every day. You  might have a better chance at playing in college because you're older than some guys but no matter the age was at PDL the best players played. And that's what made everyone better because they wanted to get to the next level.

 

Photo belongs to Ocean City FC

Photo belongs to Ocean City FC

(Skip ahead to 1:09:00 to see the myriad of saves in the first half against New York Red Bulls.)

What are your thoughts on college soccer as a development for players?

It's an experience. It's taking a jump from high school so it's another push to play at the next level. Division one is where I've always wanted to play and it really helped. You train six out of the seven days of the week and you only have off because, I think, it's an NCAA rule that you have to have off. But it was awesome. The training was great for me, to play every day. To get out from the effort we put into it, from the players and coaches, it was good.

I noticed you started wearing headgear. Can you talk about that?

I got a concussion my senior year so I thought that I might as well wear it to prevent any type of injuries with the head. It was uncomfortable at first but if they make gear to protect head injuries from happening why not wear it? Although it was kind of funny wearing it the first time around.

 

Photo belongs to Philly Soccer Page

Photo belongs to Philly Soccer Page

How did you get the concussion?

It was against Lafayette, first game of the season. I went out and caught it, an easy catch. A center back from Lafayette, a big guy, maybe 6'2', just ran through me in the air and didn't get any of the ball. I came down and landed on my head. I stayed in for another ten minutes but we went into overtime because we were tied so I put myself out from playing overtime. It wasn't worth the risk to keep playing with the injury. It's a long season so I tried to make the best decision for me personally and the team.

Photo belongs to Athletic 10 Conference

Photo belongs to Athletic 10 Conference

Are you back to 100% now?

Yeah, yeah, I've been back to 100%. That was in late August. I only missed one game and played the rest of them.

There was hardly any press on the Seattle Combine you attended. What can you tell us about that?

It was really cool. It was the best players, mostly from the country although I know some where from out of the country. A lot of players go to the MLS combine that were there at the Seattle combine and I took a lot out of it. If I couldn't hang with the players at that combine then there's no chance that I'd be able to hang with the players at the next level. It was a learning experience for me, definitely, but I felt like I played to the best of my abilities. I got some good feedback and met some great guys that hopefully things work out for them down the line.

You were invited to the USL Pro combine and were rated as a top goalkeeper by Top Drawer Soccer. Where are you looking forward?

I've been in talks with coaches since the combine and I've talked to a bunch of USL Pro teams. I went to Rochester's tryout. Any tryout I could go to I went to to get my name out there so that if any chance comes my way I can really take advantage of it. I was shooting teams emails as soon as I got done with my college season. At one point I was just guessing emails, as funny as that sounds. I would look at, say, Seattle, and I would put a name and try to guess the ending of the email and I got a decent amount of responses. *laughs* I sent out a resume and a highlight tape. So yeah, I've been training and hoping. My agent is doing a good job for me, Dave Williamson, he's been putting out a good word and guiding me in the right direction.

 

Photo belongs to La Salle University

Photo belongs to La Salle University

2014 MLS Draft - Goalkeeper Edish

Feel free to check out my post on the expectation of last year's draftees.

With DC United sitting on Bill Hamid and Joe Willis, no one expected DC to have any interest in goalkeeper Andre Blake. Of all the problems they had last year, adding another goalkeeper to the mix wouldn't really help the situation. Most of us assumed Vancouver would end up with Blake at the third spot but after a stellar combine a bidding war broke out to get DC's first pick.

Philadelphia, with only Zac MacMath on the books as a goalkeeper, won the pick swap for an unnamed amount of money. Also Philly was only one spot below DC so I imagine that was a big reason why they made the trade.

(edit: Zolo Times had an interesting article on MacMath's situation after Blake was selected.)

Immediately panic swept over anyone who had a microphone. There were many speculations that MacMath's time in Philadelphia was done. I watched Alexi Lalas swap out MacMath for Blake in the Union's projected eleven. I heard Alejandro Moreno repeatedly speak of how bad of news this was for MacMath, who apparently was at the draft.

Here's the thing, Philadelphia has not managed goalkeepers well since ever. In their first year they started youngster Chris Seitz who was quickly painted a villain but has had some stellar performances when Fernandez was not available in Dallas. The next year Colombian Faryd Mondragon who, despite a badass last name, was a 38 year old splitting time with 18 year old Zac MacMath. If you have not been pleased with MacMath this last year as a 21 year old, you can imagine the gritting of teeth 2011 held. And for the last two years MacMath has played 66 of the 68 league games for Philadelphia. The USYNT product was not ready to start for an MLS squad but Philadelphia kept pushing him to be.

Now Blake is on the scene and most everyone is saying how "MLS-ready" he is. If the problem of the untrusted collegiate system producing a goalkeeper who is more prepared to start than a goaltender who is already three-quarters of the way to the century mark is not worrisome enough then let me add on some more. Blake is similar to Bill Hamid who, like MacMath, have yet to inspire confidence in their fans. All three are strong, explosive, but have the shadow of "they'll be great eventually" hang over these young goalkeepers. If Hamid and MacMath, who are facing tougher competition and getting better coaching are still struggling, how good should we expect Blake to be?

All that to say, Blake will not save Philadelphia. Yes I would start Blake over MacMath but that's more a distaste in Philadelphia goalkeeping management than how good Blake is. I know there are rumors of him leaving...

...but I'm not completely sold on it. I think Philly continues to back MacMath and he starts a majority of the season. However if we do see MacMath on the way out, we should all remember John Hackworth's confidence can be easily shaken.

Later, I quasi-called a team to draft the second goalkeeper, although I would not have guessed Berner.

Round three and four of the MLS draft are typically where the goalkeeper selections start picking up. The draft concludes on Tuesday the 21st so hopefully we'll see a few deserving keepers end up with MLS contracts then.

Day Two

Only two goalkeepers were selected in the final rounds and they selection was as mysterious as the goalkeepers are. Houston selected Michael Lisch from New Mexico and San Jose picked up Billy Knutsen from American. Both of these goalkeepers were largely unknown going into the draft. Houston already had three goalies on the bill but San Jose finally filled out their roster with Knutsen. Below are some highlights of Knutsen and of the handful of goals I could see from Lisch (New Mexico doesn't believe in making highlights of their games, aka "advertisement of their product") he looks very aggressive.

Billy Knutsen (San Francisco, Calif.), star goalkeeper at American University in Washington, D.C., shows his natural skill and comfort in the box, between the pipes and on the pitch.

Lastly, this came out later but looks like DC United got a pretty penny for Blake.

Everybody Soccer - Week 2

Howdy keeper nation. Welcome back to the weekly goalkeeper round up. In case you missed it (or just love re-reading stuff), I wrote about how a goalkeeper's GAA isn't an accurate gauge of how good he is in a correctly titled "Why a Goalkeeper's GAA is Complete Bunk".

  • Germany's Nadine Angerer won the woman's Player of the Year Award, seemingly for her two penalty stop performance in the Euro final against Norway. Her acceptance speech was in German but luckily an old man translates it in his raspy, English voice. Here is a video of her two penalty saves and another random save. She signed with Portland so if you're interested in watching the best women's player in the world you might have that luxury this next year.
     
  • Manuel Neuer was named to the World XI. See how good he is. Neuer was also voted top goalkeeper of the year, which would make sense. It was a bit of a runaway but Buffon, Cech, Courtois and Valdes finished second through fifth. Casillas didn't make the list but is still pretty decent.
     
  • Some MLS 'keeper signings happened. Portland signed ex-Sounder/Phoenix FC Andrew Weber and Chicago picked up Kyle Reynish. Portland now has around a bazillion goalkeepers so I'm not sure what their plan is there. Reynish started in goal for the Cosmos this last season so it's odd to see this move knowing he'll be on the bench behind Johnson. Cosmos re-signed backup Jimmy Maurer. Also MLS great Pat Onstad was picked up as Columbus' goalkeeper coach and will be working with Steve Clark this season.
     
  • I don't normally over-analyze every EPL game but I thought Guzan's first conceded goal against Arsenal was a good one to look at for footwork. You can see that Guzan is in good position but instead of stepping with his left foot to dive he kicks it out to drop quicker. This type of save would be appropriate for a hard shot close to the body but the shot is too far away from Guzan to get a hand on it. Look at the last picture (below) and see how much of the goal he can't cover without a step.
  • MLS released their top five goalkeepers to watch, only furthering the confusion of who the best goalkeeper is after Andre Blake. Travis Clark tries to help us out by giving some highlights of all the players at the combine (specifically check out Billings, McCarthy, Otte).
     
  • The MLS Combine has been going on this past weekend.
    Game 1 - Diaz looked pretty bad, Renfro made a nice save at 0:56 after giving up a soft goal of his own.
    Game 2 - Blake makes an acrobatic save at 0:51 and Heemskerk looks a step behind.
    Game 3 - Berner and Heemskerk didn't look that sharp to me.
    Game 4 - Renfro and Blake did their job.
    Game 5 - Renfro gives up a soft goal, Heemskerk skip-set is very gaudy, and Otte is good at saving things with his chest.
    Game 6 - Blake and Berner have some week knee syndrome in their goals. (Don't go to ground if they don't shoot the ball!)
     
  • USL Pro released the names of eleven goalkeepers that will attend their combine on January 23-26. Brian Billings and John McCarthy stuck out to me but this is also after the MLS draft and the same weekend as the NASL's combine. So we'll see how that plays out.
     
  • I stumbled on some Kevin Piedrahita highlights. He is a 22 year old who has spent time in the US Youth programs and is now playing in Colombia.
     
  • Will Hesmer is being inducted in the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame later this month. Huge congratulations to him on his career.
     
  • USA Prospects reported that Jacole Turner would be returning to Sporting Kansas City from Atletico Madrid's C team but there was some following discussion about when he was last over there.
     
  • EPL's own fantasy site has been releasing some nice "best of" goalkeeping videos that include the immortal Brad Friedel. The links they provide to share (best keepers, best saves) look like they're trying to steal your credit card, though.
     
  • Buffon isn't happy with the media, "Some comments infuriate me or make me laugh depending on how I wake up on the morning."
     
  • NWSL's latest addition, Houston Dash, signed Bianca Henninger, a 23 year old that has spent time with the U23, U20 teams.
     
  • I'm super late on this but Robert Green finally had a positive report without being tied to that you-know-what incident back you-know-where-in-South-Africa and I thought that was good for him.
     
  • There were some good third round saves from the FA cup and, hardly related, maybe you wanted to watch the top highlights from the 2012-13 EPL season.
     
  • Here are the top ten highest paid goalkeepers. It is a lot.
     
  • I called this. You're welcome.
     
  • Some BigSoccer threads that caught my eye...
    • Sean Johnson trained with Jamaica as a 16 year old... in 2005.
    • US Goalkeeping Discussion mentions a French-American, U23 USYNT alum. He is quoted in here about his decision to go to a third division team in France.
    • Carlos Avilez and William Pulisic (pul-eh-sich) travel with the U17s to Turkey to play to play France, Norway, and Scotland. Avilez is playing up a cycle and Pulisic played some in the December Nike Friendlies.
    • Alex Horwath is on trail with a second division team in Sweden. Horwath played at Tampa in the USL Pro this last year.
       
  • And below are just some cool goalkeeping pictures I saw this week. The hand mold is Brad Guzan and also special thanks to Maxi Rodriguez for my feline addition!